AutoCAD 2004 Bible book - Exercise does not do anything.

[Hap]

I'm going through the excesses in the AutoCAD 2004 Bible and every so often I find one that does not work. But last week I found a list of error corrections and saved a copy which was a great help in letting me know that it was not just my stupidity that was keeping me from being able to complete the exercise.

 

But just now I have run into an exercise that is not listed as an error but the exercises does not scale the drawing as it says it should. In the chapter on "Step-by-Step: Editing with Grips" on page 252 paragraph 14 where it says At the Specify stretch point or [base point/Copy/Undo/eXit]: prompt, type @0,1 [Enter]. AutoCAD shrinks the model.

 

But nothing happens except that the hot grips (red) go cold (blue). I tried it four times. What do the 0 and 1 represent respectively? Is the 1 the scale factor?

 

And as I'm writing this question I'm thinking that if the scale factor is 1 (which is not a scale in reality) the drawing still would not scale even if I used a number like 1.25 or .9 because the exercise does not have you select the entire drawing but rather, just the base. Is this correct?

 

I'm not sure what the exercise is suppose to teach or accomplish.

 

Thanks,

Hap

[Ryder76]

I believe this is an exercise in how to STRETCH a set of objects to a specific distance not a SCALE exercise. You can use the STRETCH command to do the same thing without having to select all the grips in the previous example. Also the @0,1 (ie: @x,y) means to go straight up 1 unit - whatever unit you have set in your drawing. Hope this helps.

[Hap]

Thanks Ryder76,

 

You made me think so I checked the drawing file in the results folder of the AutoCAD 2004 Bible CD and I discovered that it did STRETCH (shrink). As a matter of fact, mine is a LOT shorter than the drawing in the results folder so it must have moved a couple of times as I tried it over again and just thought nothing was happening. So I did the exercise and it worked and I just didn't know it.

 

I guess the exercise was just to get familier with using the grips and making them "hot" etc.

[ReMark]

The key point you seemed to have missed can be found in the first line in number 14 above. Hold down Shift and pick all the grips along the bottom three lines. What the author wants the user to do is Stretch only those three lines thus making the vertical height of the drive block section shorter. Perhaps this could have been better illustrated by over-exaggerating the "Y" distance from 1 to 5. The change would have been more noticeable.

 

Pages 245 through 253 deals primarily with editing via Grips. You're correct on that point.