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stretch command?


jmd

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I'm new to vectorworks. i'm looking for a stretch tool. some way to easily grab a corner or end of a whole building and stretch it or compress it or re shape multiple objects with one command or tool. any help?

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i'm looking for something a bit more universal than that. a way to grab a multitude of walls, windows and all the information inside of them and stretch them. both autocadand microstation have this function. it seems pretty simple, but i have not found this tool in vectorworks yet

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Select the items you want to stretch, use the 2D reshape tool to encompass the points to stretch. Holding alt will give you a lasso as opposed to the rectangular marquee. Click & drag within the marquee, tabbing to input numbers in top if necessary.

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You can select the whole building, Group it, then stretch the group just as you would a rectangle, by grabbing one of the corners or midpoints and dragging. And then UnGroup if you want. That will stretch everything proportionally in the direction(s) stretched.

And there's also the Scale Objects command, which re-sizes all the selected stuff by a numerical factor, either symmetrically or by different factors for different directions.

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Thank you jan15 ... in the old days this did not always work for 3D objects ... but now the power to modify Groups and Scale Objects is incredible especially in 3D space. I especially appreciate the ability to Scale Object as X,Y,Z or as X or Y ... very handy for instantly tweeking 3D objects without affecting the Z.

Groups rock ... it's all about groupings...

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You said it, Islandmon. Groups are way under-rated.

They do a lot of the things people try to do with layers and classes, but they do it much quicker and more conveniently, without having to deal with names and long drop-down lists.

Sketchup has made very good use of this concept also, probably borrowing from VW.

Autocad users... sorry. They missed the concept completely. Autocad's Group is a cheap imitation, like those pocket computers they sell at the dollar store.

[ 07-09-2005, 09:13 PM: Message edited by: jan15 ]

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Robert-

I see what you are saying, but if i am following your advice correctly, I can't manipulate a group with the reshape tool. it will work only on a polyline. I can use the rescale tool on a group, but again this effects everything in the group, not just items in a specified area.

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quote:

Originally posted by jmd:

any way to stretch a group without changing the proportion of everything in the group?

You could make a temporary symbol out of the things you want to keep the same. A symbol doesn't change size or shape when you drag-stretch the symbol or a group that it's in.

It might help to say exactly what you're trying to do. For example, if you want to make the building footprint bigger but keep the wall thicknesses the same, the solution might be to draw with the Wall tool.

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  • 8 months later...

jan15, you can slam AC for a lousy group command, at least I never found it to be very effective. But AC does have an excellent stretch, plus relative point to point copy and move functions. I downloaded these functions from VectorBits, but cannot see why they are not part of the basic VW tool set.

I too would like to be able to do a stretch through section of a plan that would stretch all objects from one edge of a marquee, that would stretch all the objects that it crosses, windows, doors, groups, wall etc, without it distorting the proportions of any of the elements.

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