Scaling objects by dragging

This is an easy way of scaling
objects as you can see the results as you drag.

To scale objects by dragging

1. Select the objects to be scaled
(see Selecting objects).

2. Ensure selection handles
are in Scale Mode
(see Switching selection handle mode).

3. Either

drag a corner selection handle to scale away from the opposite corner,

or Shift-drag a corner selection handle to scale around the center,

or drag a side selection handle to stretch in one direction,

or Shift-drag a side selection handle to stretch in both directions.

Solid drag

You will see the entire object resize in real time, to allow for easy placement of items in your document. If you wish to just seen an outline of an object as you move it (which may be quicker, if the object is complex) press the tab key whilst dragging. You can press the tab key again to go back to solid drag.

You can see the solid drag status in the bottom right of the Xara LX window:

indicates that solid drag is currently turned on. indicates that solid drag is currently turned off.

You can also double click this icon to turn solid drag on or off accordingly.

Note: If Xara LX detects that your system is too slow to perform a solid drag, it will automatically switch over to outline drag if necessary—ensuring you can continue to work with ease and speed.

Tips

If you select the Aspect Ratio Lock button on the Selector Tool Infobar
, the aspect ratio
of the selected object is locked when you scale using the corner handles.

To leave copies of the object as you scale it, drag as normal, but click the right mouse button where you want each copy (or press ' +' on the numeric keypad).

To force line thicknesses in the selection to increase/decrease with the scaling click the Scale Line Width Button on the Infobar.

To scale the object but not any fill applied to it, press and release ' - ' on the numeric keypad during the drag. This is useful if you want to scale an object with a bitmap fill and not scale the bitmap.

If you stretch an object containing a circular fill, the fill changes to an elliptical fill. Undo does not revert this change - the fill remains elliptical.

When you resize a bitmap, Xara LX smooths (interpolates) between the individual pixels to give a smooth look to the bitmap. Usually this gives the best result. However you might not want this effect - in this case you can turn off smoothing for either all bitmaps in the document or a single bitmap. The difference between smoothed and unsmoothed
.

Note:

The size of feathering
does not change when you scale objects.

Movie—click below (not working in this version)

Using selection handles

_______________

Related Topics