Precisely resizing from center of object?

For your help and questions
Post Reply
iblink
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Nov 29, 2021 3:32 pm

Precisely resizing from center of object?

Post by iblink »

Hello,
I need to precisely increase the size of a cutout while maintaining the same position on the material (I'm using identical sheets). I see that I can option-drag but this is very imprecise. I need to increase the size of my cutout by 3 mm for every sheet, for roughly 500 sheets.

One can precisely increase the size in the Position & Size panel, but this method always uses the top left corner of the object as the origin anchor. Is there a way to set the center of the cutout as the origin? It seems trivial, but I can't find it, and I would have to reposition the cutout every time.

Much thanks,

- M
SandyMcC
Posts: 1114
Joined: Mon May 09, 2011 7:01 am

Re: Precisely resizing from center of object?

Post by SandyMcC »

If you hold the Alt key and Shift key while dragging the lower right corner of the selected shape, it will maintain the position, however it's very difficult to control the new size, so that won't work. :(

If your shape was something perfectly symmetrical, like a circle or square, then you could use Path>Offset Path to create a 3 mm (or actually 1.5 mm) offset. But I'm guessing that's not going to work for your particular shapes but it's not exactly the same shape but rather a shadow of the shape.

I will ask my colleague in Australia if he can think of a way to do it.
Sandy McCauley
Owner of http://www.iloveknk.com/
SandyMcC
Posts: 1114
Joined: Mon May 09, 2011 7:01 am

Re: Precisely resizing from center of object?

Post by SandyMcC »

Right after I concluded that last post, I thought of a way to do it which works and, hopefully would be suitable for your application. I made a quick video:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19whVjS ... sp=sharing

Let me know if you have any questions. I'll still check with Paul when I get a chance.
Sandy McCauley
Owner of http://www.iloveknk.com/
Post Reply