Stretching with two reference points

[agamemnus]

@unknownuser said:

There is a 'To Target' option in Fredo's Scale Plugin, but to be honest i'm kinda confuddled by your query? Can you supply a pic for more info on your issue?

@agamemnus said:

stretch an object such that a specific point on my object aligns with a point on the outside?

The tool can also stretch objects faces/vertices/endpoints

Now that i think about it i'm way off the mark

Stretch an object such that, when stretched, a point on the object aligns with a point outside the object. Just like move, but stretching the entire object instead of just a face or line.

[Gaieus]

Yes, with a fairly simple object, the tool seems to be the easiest way like in this (also very simple) tutorial.

[agamemnus]

I'm stretching a ladder so that it touches both the top of the observation deck and the bottom of my ship. So, I can't use the move tool to stretch.

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[mitcorb]

In the case of the bottom of your ladder, my first impression is to make a selection of both circular bottoms of the rails, activate the move tool, select a point along one of the hidden edges on the ladder rail and drag the move icon along this edge until it visually engages the horizontal surface, or as far as you want to go. This will extend the rails of the ladder down to the floor.

By the way, selecting more than one face can be done in conjunction with either the shift key (allows add/subtract in selection set), or with the control key (to add only), in case you are not familiar with this feature.

Edit: If your ladder is a component or group, you must select it, right click, Edit Group-- or Edit Component seen in the right click menu.

[agamemnus]

That won't work... I want to stretch ("scale") the entire ladder.

[mitcorb]

@agamemnus said:

That won't work... I want to stretch ("scale") the entire ladder.

But I notice that the bottom rung of the ladder is disproportionately close to the bottom ends of the rails. Should this distance not be approximately 12"[~300mm]?

You can constrain the scaling to a vertical "axis" by activating the appropriate grip on the scale bounding box and using the control key you can scale about the centroid of that box. Use, in this case, the grip at the bottom. If you have not already done so, it may be a good idea to identify the ladder either as a group or a named component, so you don't interfere with surrounding entities.

If you want to scale only in the downward direction, do not use the control key, just click the center grip at the bottom.

Also, see if you can measure the vertical distance of the ladder, and then the vertical deck to deck distance. The ratio of these two distances will give you a clue to the scale factor you need.

[agamemnus]

@mitcorb said:

@agamemnus said:

That won't work... I want to stretch ("scale") the entire ladder.

But I notice that the bottom rung of the ladder is disproportionately close to the bottom ends of the rails. Should this distance not be approximately 12"[~300mm]?

No, I did that on purpose. It's more convenient (for the ladder users) for the distance between the bottom of a ladder and the bottom rung (same for top and top rung) to be smaller than the distance between each rung.

@unknownuser said:

Also, see if you can measure the vertical distance of the ladder, and then the vertical deck to deck distance. The ratio of these two distances will give you a clue to the scale factor you need.

Well, that's just it. I want to avoid having to do that. It's really cumbersome!

[Rich O Brien]

Have you tried this method?

[Rich O Brien]

Make sure you read his Manual which is included as it's a goldmine of info on how great this tool is

[agamemnus]

I actually tried Fredo's stuff once, a while ago, but I had trouble with rotation and flipping options (edit: and grouping) randomly disappearing and didn't notice this one. I'll download it again and try. Thanks!