Precise scale about center in two axes?


Bombarde16

Recommended Posts

O, wise and powerful wizards of Sketchup...

Can one enter a precise ratio to uniformly scale an object about its center in two dimensions while leaving the third dimension unchanged?

That's a mouthful, so here's the scoop:  Take a cylindrical object.  I'll just use a 55-gallon drum from the 3D warehouse for fun.  Activate the scale tool, the green dots appear, blah blah blah

567ab7c6e06da_1-Fullscreencapture1223201

Click red-green scale and drag the mouse around, the object will distort in width and depth while the height remains constant.  If you are doing this totally freehand and without the precision mousing skills of an android, when you click the mouse to finalize the scaling operation you will end up applying different scaling ratios to the red and green axes:

567ab83ac348e_3-Fullscreencapture1223201

You can force Sketchup to scale precisely by single clicking a scale handle, typing a scaling ratio and then pressing Enter.  Here, I've scaled the drum by 50% in the red and green axes:

567ab937859de_1-Fullscreencapture1223201

Notice that the measurement field in the bottom left says "Red, Green Scale .5"  So far, so good.  You can likewise force Sketchup to scale an object about its center by holding CTRL during the operation.  The problem is this:  As long as my finger is on the CTRL key, I cannot type a precise scaling ratio.  Moreover, if I hold SHIFT while holding CTRL, the scaling tool assumes a uniform scale in all axes, negating the fact that I started the scale operation by clicking the Red-Green handle.

I want to enter a precise ratio to scale this cylinder about its center in only two axes.  Whither now?  I'm guessing there's a way to get Sketchup to scale about center without keeping one's finger on CTRL.  After all, pressing CTRL at any time with the Move command will put you into Move & Copy without having to hold the button.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.