How to exactly scale a component to an absolute size?

David.P · 17 Oct 2009, 18:22

Hi forum,

I've downloaded a car model from the warehouse. So far, everything is fine.

However, the car is not to scale. Therefore, I'd like to simply enter the correct length of the car while scaling it, in order to bring the car to scale.

This however doesn't work because when scaling the car by it's length (pressing shift to constrain the car's proportions) it is not possible to enter the car's length into the Measurements box in the status bar -- because the Measurements box wouldn't accept any numbers when pressing shift at the same time.

Also, it is not possible to attach a Dimension (from Tools -> Dimensions) to the bounding box of the car (as a component), in order to scale the car this way.

Thus, I can see no single way to properly and exactly bring a component (here, the car) to an exact length.

Thanks heaps already for help,

Cheers David.P

xrok1 · 17 Oct 2009, 18:34

draw a line on the ground beside your car, start inline with the farthest front or back extension of the car, then scale from the opposite end with shift and snap to the line.

d12dozr · 17 Oct 2009, 18:34

[flash=480,385:33vi5zbx]http://www.youtube.com/v/eXh6y5b0pdg&hl=en&fs=1&[/flash:33vi5zbx]

thomthom · 17 Oct 2009, 18:55

When you scale you can type into the VCB the dimension you want.
http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=94906

xrok1 · 17 Oct 2009, 19:01

very nice, thankyou Thomas. i had always tried this by just typing a number as usual and of course i assumed it did work because whatever i typed became the scaling factor. But DUH, if you add the " or ' it works. thanks for the revelation, sometimes we get so caught up in work arounds we forget work flow!

thomthom · 17 Oct 2009, 19:03

" for inches
' for feet

But any metric unit such as mm, cm, m etc works as well.

David.P · 17 Oct 2009, 20:25

Thanks lots guys.

Basically, xrok's advice was the way to go for me.

(As already pointed out above, typing the car's length into the VCB doesn't work in this case since you can't restrain the proportions by holding shift AND type in a number at the same time.)

Anyway, the 'snap to a guide line' did it.

Thanks again,

David.P

jeff hammond · 17 Oct 2009, 21:39

i like using the tape measure

it's probably covered in the video posted above but i don't feel like watching a 7min video right now..

to resize, you basically use the tape measure in the same way you use the line tool... with the line tool, after your second click, you can enter the length of desired line in the VCB and the line will be drawn to that length.. [the line shortens or extends depending on the value]
with the tape measure, after your second click, you enter a length in the vcb and the whole model is resized accordingly.. [the entire model scales to the length of your tape]..

xrok1 · 18 Oct 2009, 04:37

well actually you could use the shift for proportion then click anyplace arbitrarily, then type the dimension. it doesn't matter if you've already clicked before you type a dim as long as you don't do anything else.

Gaieus · 18 Oct 2009, 09:28

Hi David (and all who use feet and inches and need the Shift key to enrter a value),

Do somehow as Rocky says;

Start the scale operation (using the shift key if needed)
Release everything > Type the value (using the shift key if needed)
Hit Enter - SU will "remember" what it is supposed to do (in this case a uniform scale operation).

David.P · 18 Oct 2009, 16:41

Thanks Rocky & Gaieus, amazing -- this of course did the trick even better.

Cheers David.P