CAD Software Forum

I am new to ICAD. I have a simple .dxf file of a 3d trash compactor. All I want to do is change the width of the drawing from 15" to 18" and save it back as another .dxf file. I have tried numerous ways to stretch or move a side panel out 3" to do this. Unfortunately I don't understand the software well enough to figure out why it does not do what I want. I can get it to scale the entire drawing larger, but that is not what I want. I only want the X dimension changed. I tried selecting the side and moving it 3" in the X axis, and that did move the side panels out, but it did not "stretch" the front/back/top/bottom to match. I have tried using the stretch command, but I can't get it to do anything. I also do not see any way to use the stretch command with specifying vectors. If I try to use a command that requires a "from/to" point pair, how can I precisely control the amount and direction of change? I know that there must be a simple way to do what I need, but I am lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I would like to RTFM, but I can't find one. I have spent a great deal of time reading the help screens, but I haven't found anything there that helps me with this problem.

Thanks,
Bill Bass
Greenville, SC

When you use the stretch command, it prompts you to select entities with a crossing window, but more than the entities, you must use the windows to select the points or nodes of the entities you want to stretch.
So, if you want to make your drawing wider, use the window but choose only one side of the drawing, not the whole thing, press enter, choose a base point of displacement and drag. You can use also relative coordinates, when the program ask for the last point, after the displacement base, you type @x,y where the x and y are the values, for example @3,0 will displace the points 3 units positive in the x axis and 0 in the y. You can use also negative values.

Well, hope this helps, good luck

Alberto

is this a wireframe or surface/mix dxf?

bbass,

Type in block at the command prompt and follow the prompts to create a block of the trash compactor.

Then type insert and follow the prompts only when asked for the X scale type in 1.2 (18/15) and type in 1 for the Y scale.

This should do the trick.

Regards

John Finlay