Documentation

Scale

5 min read

Use this interactive option to scale most design items either at the items origin or, in certain cases, from a selected point. The Scale option can be found in the Utilities menu.

Scalable items include:

  • All shapes. Circles scale from their centre. All other shapes require a scale origin to be defined. You can also scale a shape by giving the required distance.
  • Text, either by changing the style to match the scale, or by changing the text size.
  • Inserted user reports, drill tables and layer stack previews. These scale in a similar way to text.
  • Schematic gates and documentation symbols, which will retain their absolute scale factor relative to the origin symbol. These can be scaled from the context menu, by Properties, or by selecting two terminals and typing the required distance between them.
  • Bitmaps. The scale origin will be the closest corner to the selection point on the bitmap.

Shortcuts

Default Keys: None

Default Menu: Utilities

Command: Scale

Locating this option

Available from: Utilities menu > Scale option

Available from: Context menu > Scale option

How to Scale

After entering the mode from the Utilities menu, use the following steps to scale items:

Shapes - polygon: (this includes boards, copper, templates, doc shapes and areas)

  1. Select a corner as your origin point for the scale.
  2. Select a second corner, different from the first, on the same shape.
  3. Move the mouse to scale.

Use the Scale option on the context menu to type in the required scale, using the first selected corner as the origin. Use the Type Offset option on the context menu to type in the required distance between the two selected corners.

Shapes - circle: (this includes boards, copper, templates, doc shapes and areas)

  1. Select a point on the circle. The origin point will always be the centre point.
  2. Move the mouse to scale.

Use the Scale option on the context menu to type in the required scale. Use the Type Offset option on the context menu to type in the required radius of the circle.

Text: (this includes Inserted reports, Drill tables and Layer stack previews). Text will be scaled based on Text Styles you have defined in your Technology.

  1. Select the text you wish to scale.
  2. Select the Scale option from the Utilities menu. This sets you in interactive mode.
  3. Move the mouse to increase the size of the rectangle. The largest text style that allows the text to fit inside this box will be used. Alternatively, hold shift to increase the size of the text whilst using its current text style. You can use the Next Style option on the context menu to cycle through text styles of the same size.
  4. Upon finishing the scale, if the shift key was held, a new text style will be added to the design.

Whilst holding shift, use the Scale option on the context menu to type in the required scale (Scale of 2 will double the height of the text). Use the Type Size option on the context menu to type in the required height of the text. Both of these modes will create a new text style in technology.

Schematic gates:

There are two ways in which to scale schematic gates. Either:

  1. Select the item. This will use the origin of the schematic gate as the origin for the scale.
  2. Move the mouse to scale.

Use the Scale option on the context menu to type in the required scale, using either the symbol origin as the origin for the scale. This scale value refers to the absolute scale factor of the gate. Use the Type Offset option on the context menu to type in the required distance between origin and the selected point.

Or:

  1. Select a terminal on the schematic gate to set it as the origin for the scale.
  2. Select another terminal on the same gate.
  3. Move the mouse to scale.

Use the Scale option on the context menu to type in the required scale, using the selected terminal as the origin for the scale. This scale value refers to the absolute scale factor of the gate. Use the Type Offset option on the context menu to type in the required distance between the two selected terminals.

When editing the symbol in library, use Scale on the context menu to scale the schematic symbol.

Bitmaps:

  1. Select the bitmap.
  2. Move the mouse to scale.

Use the Scale option on the context menu to type in the required scale.

Using the context menu scale command

Context Menu:

You can scale most design items. All points are scaled by the specified amount about the origin of the selection. Styles are not scaled, so all text remains at the same height and lines remain at the same width. Multiple selected items can be scaled.

Schematic gates and documentation symbols can be scaled, and will retain their absolute scale factor relative to the origin symbol, this can be edited through Properties.

To Scale, select the items to scale and select the Scale command. This gives a dialog which prompts for the factor to scale by (1.0 means no scaling, 0.5 means half size, etc.). This dialog retains the last used scale factor.

Documentation Symbol Properties | Latched Mode | Options - Interaction

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