Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Alternatively, you can indicate an angle on the screen by moving the crosshairs un-
til the Coordinates section of the status bar indicates the desired angle and then
clicking. If you choose this alternative, you will need to use Ortho mode or Polar
Tracking to indicate a precise angle (for example, 90 or 45 degrees) or an object
snap to rotate an object so it aligns precisely with other objects.
After you specify the rotation angle by typing or picking, AutoCAD rotates the ob-
jects into their new position. The ROTATE command's Copy option makes a rotated
copy while leaving the source object in place.
Scale
If you read all my harping about drawing scales and scale factors in Chapter 4, you may
think that the SCALE command performs some magical scale transformation on your en-
tire drawing. No such luck. It merely uniformly scales one or more objects up or down
by a factor that you specify. Here's how it works:
1. Press Esc to make sure that no command is active and no objects are selected.
2. Click the Scale button on the Home tab's Modify panel.
3. Select one or more objects and then press Enter to end object selection.
AutoCAD prompts you for the base point around which it will scale all the selected
objects:
Specify base point:
4. Specify a base point by picking a point or typing coordinates.
The base point becomes the point around which the objects are scaled. AutoCAD
prompts you for the scale factor:
Specify scale factor or [Copy/Reference] <1.0000>:
Don't assume that AutoCAD will scale the objects but leave them more or
less where they are in the drawing. AutoCAD scales the distance
between
objects as
well as the objects themselves. For example, if you select a circle to scale, pick a
point outside the circle as the base point and then specify a scale factor of 2.
AutoCAD not only makes the circle twice as big, but also moves the circle twice as
far away from the base point that you specified. If you want to make a circle bigger
but leave it where it's currently located, make sure you select its center point as the
base point for the scale operation.
5. Type a scale factor and press Enter.
