SCALE command by Reference option on polygon, please explain

Hi,

Extreme newbie here.

The scale command: Can it be used in such a way that you specify the exact new length of sides of a polygon?

I have a square that is 6.5" on the side. I want it to be 6" on the side. Is there a way to specify the new length of 6"? Or am I forced to enter a scaling factor of 0.923076? Which is more awkward than entering 6".

If it is possible how is it done? I have been extremely unsuccessful in getting the Reference option of the SCALE command to behave in a way I expect. I don't understand what it means in the scale command help info of "specify the current distance and then the new desired size". What does current distance mean?

Thanks.

the reference option is exactly what you want.

select one of the corners as your base point. When asked for scale type R. You will then asked for a length so pick one end of a side and the other end of the same side. When asked for reference length you can then type the new length.

I don't understand what it means in the scale command help info of "specify the current distance and then the new desired size". What does current distance mean?

You're almost there Sudan.

When you use the scale by reference command the "current distance" in this case is 6.5 so that is what you would enter at the command line. Then for "desired size" you would enter 6 and AutoCAD will scale the selected object(s) by the calculated amount.

I think you need to SCALE, then choose your base point. Then, choose reference and pick the two points at each end of where your desired distance will come into effect. Following that, you then type in your desired length, or choose POINTS and pick two other points, with the distance between them being assigned to the two points you chose immediately after selecting REFERENCE.

So SCALE > REFERENCE...pick two points whose distance you want to change, then type in new distance or pick POINTS and choose two points to inherit their distance.

Any good?

Thank you to all Three of You. I really appreciate it. It now makes sense to me how it works.

Sorry, coming in late on this one.

There's another way to scale which would save a few keystrokes at times but requires a little bit of thought. I use it alot for converting metric to english units.

If you used the scale command, select reference point, then enter the scale as a inverted fraction. Note that you can't enter decimals in a fraction, so at times you'll need to move the decimal over the same for both.

Example 1: To scale a square draw at 60mm down to inches you would enter the conversion of 1/25.4 as 10/254.

Example 2: To scale a square drawn at 6.5" down to 6.0" you would enter the conversion of 60/6.5 as 60/65.

This method works anywhere you need to enter input for a distance. You can use it to enter half the distance for offsets to get a center line by making it a fraction of 199/2 to offset 99.5. The next time you use the same command you get the result of this last number entered in the on the command line. in this case.

have fun.

dave

"Most of what I know came from the "F1" key"