Scale to Reference - Tuesday Tips

By Rose Barfield 3 min June 22, 2020

I'm sure that most of you are aware of the Scale command by now, but did you know that you can scale objects to a reference point? This can be really hand when resizing entities on a drawing.

How to scale an entity by reference in BricsCAD

To scale an entity by reference, use the "reference" (r) option of the Scale command. This option scales entities relative to other entities or by value.

Scale to Reference - Tuesday Tips- scale

How to scale an entity by a reference in BricsCAD

Start the Scale command (SC).
Select the entities to scale
Select a base point
Enter "r".
Select the first and second reference point, or enter a value for the length.

This command normally scales from a base factor of 1.

Did you know?

You can also use the Manipulator to scale entities in BricsCAD.

Scale to Reference - Tuesday Tips- scale manipulator-1024x629

Scaling an entity with the Manipulator

First, change the arrowhead behavior to Scale. Then use the arrowheads to scale the selected entities from the Manipulator basepoint. Hit R to scale to a reference.

How to change the Manipulator arrowhead behavior:

Hover over the arrowhead and right-click. This will open the right-click menu.
Change 'Arrowhead acts as' -- '3D mirror' to 'Arrowhead acts as' -- '3D Scale'.

Scale to Reference - Tuesday Tips- right click

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by Rose Barfield - CAD User Experience & Interface Design Specialist

Rose is responsible for taking user feedback and improving the BricsCAD product. Before coming to BricsCAD, she was a CAD user and worked in the Automotive, Aerospace, and Defense industries as a Technical Illustrator. She loves finding out how things work, taking them apart, and (hopefully) putting them back together again.