Page 86 - Xara Designer Pro X17

86 Object Handling

• Position and size as reported on the SELECTOR TOOL InfoBar XYWH fields
• Changing position and size by entering values into the InfoBar XYWH fields
• Changing size by entering values in the W% H% fields
• Scaling/stretching objects by dragging in the Selector tool
• Alignment
• Snapping

The line attributes that are taken into account when SCALE LINE WIDTHS is turned on are:
• Line width
• End caps
• Join type
• Dash pattern
• Arrowheads
• Brush style
• Stroke type (inc. variable width strokes)

In general, if you are interested in the visual positions of objects you should turn SCALE
LINE WIDTHS on. If you're interested in the exact positions of lines (e.g. where the centers
of lines are, as is typical in technical drawings) then you should turn SCALE LINE WIDTHS
off.
Lock Aspect button

With the LOCK ASPECT padlock button set, the width/height aspect
ratio remains constant as you scale the object.

In other words, the shape remains in the same proportions as the original. It’s
recommended that this button remains selected most of the time in order to ensure that
when you resize objects they do not become squashed.
With this button unset, you can change the aspect ratio as you scale the object, in other
words, you can stretch object one way or another when dragging a corner resize handle
or when entering a new size.

Smart transform
Additionally you can right click on the padlock button to display a context menu giving
you the option to turn on or off both ASPECT RATIO LOCK and SMART TRANSFORM. The
latter attempts to scale the shape smartly rather than just squashing all members of the
group and is on by default.

If you want a simple ‘squashed’ or 'stretched' result, where each member of the group is
simply scaled - make sure you you have the SELECTION BOUNDS handles selected - click
the button on the SELECTOR TOOL (on page 123) infobar to display the handles.