Even some advanced AutoCad users do not fully understand the scaling properties and, as a result, do not know how to take full advantage of this tool.
How to use the zoom tool
The scaling tool is designed to resize elements or groups of elements in AutoCad drawings. This tool is required to display individual elements of the drawing with varying degrees of detail. To increase or decrease the size of an object using scaling, you can:
- enter the command _scale in the command line, in Russian versions the command "SCALE" is used;
- call the drop-down menu from the Modify item and select the Scale tool in it;
- click on the corresponding icon in the main ribbon of tools;
- call the context menu with the right mouse click and select the Scale command.
How to set the scale for an object
There are two ways to set the scale. The first is to enter the appropriate value for the scaling factor in the text box that appears after activating the Scale command, and press the Enter key after entering the value. Naturally, you need to know this value in advance, otherwise the operation will have to be canceled and done again. The value of the coefficient must be entered relative to one. That is, 1 is the current scale, 2 is the magnification of the object, and 0.5 is the reduction of the object by half.
If the exact value of the scaling factor is unknown, you can edit the size of the object "by eye" using the second method. To do this, after activating the scaling command, move the cursor to the center of the object and, holding the left mouse button, drag from the center to the edges, which will increase the scale of the object. To change the scale downward, you need to drag not by the center of the object, but by its visible border and in the opposite direction.
Global scale
Depending on the zoom options you set, objects in the viewport may behave differently when zooming in or out. Global scale parameters in model editing mode are set in the linetype selection window. As with scaling objects, the global scaling factor is anchored to one.
In sheet editing mode, you can set an individual scale for each viewport. To do this, open the properties of the viewport by double-clicking on its outline and select the appropriate value for the annotation scale. If there are several viewports on the sheet, each of them will display the set scale. This is the best way to match scaling when viewing and printing a drawing.
