Scale / Fixed position not proportional - yes I 've read instructions

[DSmith2300 18]

Since there is no functionality to casually scale from the centre of an object or group (except circles), I've been trying to make the 'Scale from fixed point' tool work (A frustrating extra step which interrupts work flow.)

 

Unfortunately it fails to work either.

 

I snap to the centre point of what ever it is, a shape, a group and try to drag it out proportionally, but no joy.

Holding shift just constrains the distortion vertically or horizontally. 
Holding Alt does nothing. Shift+Alt nothing.
Beating my forehead against the keyboard just produces random results and scares colleagues.

 

The text snap cues have all disappeared also. As far as I can tell, they are on in the options settings, but I only get little symbols which I guess at.

I'm OK with that but I have a feeling this is all tied together as both a bug and a basic (bad) functionality. 

Perhaps a Service pack will fix it.

The basic functionality however needs a serious overhaul.

 

I really really really think VW needs to take a cue from Adobe Illustrator and see how there object scaling functionality grips works. AI is extremely intuitive and is a joy to use with / Alt constraints. 

 

Thanks for any help anyone might give.

 

[Pat Stanford 1,423]

If you are trying to scale an object using the mouse, have you set the fixed point in the Object Info Palette to be the center?

 

 

When I do that and grab a corner point of a Rectangle and hold down Command and Shift I get symmetrical scaling around the center point.

 

HTH

[DSmith2300 18]

Thanks Pat,

 

I have just attempted what you advised. 

It works to hold Ctrl + Shift for a rectangle, but not a group or any other object. (edit: rounded rectangle and ovals work too)

Where the little dot is selected on the info palette seem to not make any difference to any grip-scaling. That was one of my first thoughts when going through this.

Is there an option to make that selection matter or link to the objects / groups in question? I could almost live with that.

 

 

Edited November 12, 2020 by DSmith2300

[Pat Stanford 1,423]

I see what you mean. I will have to play with this some more.

[line-weight 727]

9 hours ago, Pat Stanford said:

If you are trying to scale an object using the mouse, have you set the fixed point in the Object Info Palette to be the center?

 

 

When I do that and grab a corner point of a Rectangle and hold down Command and Shift I get symmetrical scaling around the center point.

 

HTH

Doesn't help the OP - but I didn't know until now that this was possible - thanks!

[scottmoore 309]

Not exactly what you are looking for but “scale by distance” might help you.  I find it to be rather quick. 

[Tom W. 139]

I agree with @scottmoore the best way to scale a group of objects from the centre is to use the Modify > Scale Objects... > Symmetric By Distance command. And don't be like me + ignore for years the little dims buttons to the side   : they allow you to quickly take dims direct from the drawing which speeds up the process considerably!

Or just use 'Symmetric' option + add a factor of 0.5 or 2 to half or double the size of the group or by whatever factor you want. Again, will scale from the centre by default.

[line-weight 727]

3 hours ago, Tom W. said:

 don't be like me + ignore for years the little dims buttons to the side   : they allow you to quickly take dims direct from the drawing which speeds up the process considerably!

 

Another thing I didn't know until just now!

[scottmoore 309]

11 hours ago, Tom W. said:

I agree with @scottmoore the best way to scale a group of objects from the centre is to use the Modify > Scale Objects... > Symmetric By Distance command. And don't be like me + ignore for years the little dims buttons to the side   : they allow you to quickly take dims direct from the drawing which speeds up the process considerably!

Or just use 'Symmetric' option + add a factor of 0.5 or 2 to half or double the size of the group or by whatever factor you want. Again, will scale from the centre by default.

I was a late adopter of that button as well, but certainly speeded up the process once I realized it was there!

 

The thing about a CAD program like VWX is that accuracy is really important.  That is why there is less interactive than you might suspect. Sometimes that can be a downfall when you “just want to make that tree a little bigger”. 

[DSmith2300 18]

On 11/13/2020 at 8:06 PM, line-weight said:

Doesn't help the OP - but I didn't know until now that this was possible - thanks!

Experiments with the version of VW I'm using show that this doesn't do anything! :)

[DSmith2300 18]

15 hours ago, Tom W. said:

I agree with @scottmoore the best way to scale a group of objects from the centre is to use the Modify > Scale Objects... > Symmetric By Distance command. And don't be like me + ignore for years the little dims buttons to the side   : they allow you to quickly take dims direct from the drawing which speeds up the process considerably!

Or just use 'Symmetric' option + add a factor of 0.5 or 2 to half or double the size of the group or by whatever factor you want. Again, will scale from the centre by default.

Thanks Tom,

I agree that's a useful method for accurate scaling.

As for "allow you to quickly take dims direct from the drawing which speeds up the process considerably!"  I'm afraid I humbly disagree.

The time is very quickly multiplied when doing all those extra steps in drilling into menus and sub sub menus and clicking at least 5 times within in it.

  

The quickest (and not nesc any less accurate method if using snaps correctly) would be to use a simple grabbing modifier and simply pull the offending group /object bigger /smaller, just like the Illustrator example I've given previously. 

 

ALT (for a centre anchor) + SHIFT (proportional) + grab a corner and go.

Bang, done.

Next. 

 

I understand now that this bit of UX is unavailable in VW, but I'd hope the dev team might see fit to include it one day.

 

Still curious to know why the fixed point scale doesn't work as described. 

 

Edited November 15, 2020 by DSmith2300