Using the move tool to warp about a center
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At 3.00 he uses the Move tool to effortlessly and perfectly warp the candleholder about its center. When I try to do it, it just ...warps. Left, right, every way except the way he shows. What's the secret? I've tried the Scale tool, and that gets better results, but even with it, I seem to have to eyeball and scale one side at a time, because I don't know how to scale the candleholder from its center (is that possible?). Thanks for any insight!
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And now that I posted that, I just did it ...it appears that I have to find the one, perfect endpoint on the outer ring to grab. Only that endpoint will work. Correct?
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The Move tool generally moves geometry, but some objects - like circles - have special 'cardinal-point' handles that you can pick on and thereby change the object instead of moving it - like changing a circle's radius - it's similar to 'Scale'... http://support.google.com/sketchup/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=94739
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How do you know which is a cardinal point? I didn't notice it being a different color or having a tooltip that says that.
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Here is a longer topic about it: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=45801
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Thanks, those links were very helpful! Wonder why those points are so well hidden. Kind of like an "easter egg," lol.
edited to add -seems like just using the Scale tool while holding the control key is a lot easier.
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You could use the Scale tool but you would need to select the circle you need to scale, get the Scale tool, grab the correct handle, do the scaling... Using the Move tool, you don't need to do quite so much tool changing. If you want a precise dimension change you either need to enter a scale factor or the final dimension (which depends upon which scale handle you choose). With the Move tool, you only need enter the change in dimension. In addition to Cardinal Points, there are Cardinal Edges which can also be used to modify a shape.
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Well, the Scale tool works all the time for me, whereas the Move tool is completely hit-or-miss. With Move, I have to slowly run the mouse around the perimeter, watching for that flashing black point. Then I go back to that point -since it doesn't appear until after you pass it- and it doesn't always work; the cylinder warps unevenly. So I circle the perimeter again, looking for another flashing black point, but this time none of them show up, or I still can't get one that I find to work. Very tedious. I must be doing something wrong.
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Rose, do not use this function then. Yes, it is tedious, and if it weren't for letting others know about it (therefore I had to try myself), I would never use it.
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Gaieus, thx! I do find it curious that sometimes that point works so perfectly for me, and other times (most of the times) it doesn't.
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