Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

From the Vault

Originally published April 2003

Scale & Rotate

References Provided Upon Request

There are two commands that have a Reference option but you have to know when and how to use it. In this section we'll take a look at the Scale and Rotate commands and where to use the Reference option.

SCALE / Reference - What if you get a drawing from the outside and it is not 1:1? The width of a door isn't 3'0" (or 900), but something squirrely like 4.975. Clearly not a metric factor nor a factor of 12. Give this a shot:

1. After backing up the drawing, Thaw, turn On and Unlock all layers.

Note: You may want to consider saving the current Layer State (Save State in the Layer dialog) prior to doing this.

2. Zoom into an area where you know the true distance between two points. This may be a door opening or some location that actually has a dimension shown (albeit incorrect).
3. Launch the SCALE command and at the prompt to select objects, enter ALL.
4. When prompted for the base point, enter 0,0. This is important if this drawing is externally referenced into another drawing.
5. At the prompt to "Specify scale factor or [Reference]", enter R for the Reference option.

6. At the prompt to "Specify reference length", enter the current incorrect distance or pick two points to define it (remember to use osnaps for accuracy!).
7. At the prompt to "Specify new length", enter what you want that distance to be; in this case, 36.
8. Zoom / Extents, then confirm the value specified.

ROTATE / Reference - Occasionally we inherit drawings from others in which the objects are not 'square'. Somehow the rotation of the objects got convoluted and we have to straighten them up.

1. Zoom into the objects to be straightened and launch the Rotate command.
2. Select the objects to be rotated and press Enter, then pick a base point at the "Specify base point" prompt. This point will effectively serve as the pivot point in the rotation of the objects.
3. When prompted to "Specify rotation angle or [Reference]", enter R for the Reference option.
4. Accurately (with object snaps), pick two points that graphically define the reference, or skewed, angle. In essence, you're identifying the angle you want to fix.

Pick the first point of the skewed angle…	Pick the second point to define the skewed angle

5. When prompted to "Specify the new angle", you can enter whatever you want that line to be. In the example on the right, I set the new angle to 0.

Top of page

Local Navigation