Scale Tool - Square One

Dig into the details of the scale command - a modify command that lets you change existing geometry. Learn command shortcuts and wide range of capabilities this command offers. Make sure you're putting all the tricks with this tool to use in your workflow!

[@DanielZajic]

That is mindblowing. I've been intimidated to learn SketchUp to design my house but after watching a few of these videos, I'm sold. The time to start is now.

[@daviddickmeyer5231]

Aaron’s always teaching and I’m always learning some little thing I hadn’t tried. Good one!

[@tinbert]

Great video - as always :) To me being a long-time SketchUp user, the entering of measures after scaling is the biggest surprise. To bring objects to specific size, I always added a guide, entered measure, then push/pulled or moved to this guide. Awesome, that hint alone saves me lot of time :)

[@juddvermillion468]

Thanks for these. I have been using sketch up since version 4, and I still learn new things from these videos!

[@dspectre]

I've only used Scale to make mirror images of items. This changes everything. Thanks for the information.

[@markwindsor914]

Loving this beginners' series. Thanks!

[@krzysztofsabon6875]

Scaling like in 6:22 in metric system, you need to write unit after value (for example If we want to scale to 3 meters, we need to write 2 m. Otherwise it will scale into 200% of oryginal size)

[@davidbrown3309]

Thanks Aaron. I'm really enjoying these Square One videos. After lecturing us on the need to break the BAD HABIT of clicking and dragging, did you forget to mention that Scale is one of the tools that REQUIRES you to click and drag?

[@rblihovde]

Good information, thanks!

[@douglasmichel6361]

Happy Thanksgiving Aaron and thanks again.

[@AaronMakingStuff]

Thanks! You too!!

[@jydwork1]

Awesome Aaron.

[@danajohnlance6587]

I just finished 12 of 31 of the "square one" course and I have to say, Aaron you have a gift and a joy of sharing your knowledge base to mere mortals. TY! If I keep my head down I'm confident I will be able to help my wife with her interior design firm to design and model the more benign aspects of her projects, a new chapter in retirement.

[@sutheal]

Great tool, great vid

[@simonastara4696]

Hi Aaron, thanks for your videos. I have been recently using for scaling Fredo 6 Scaling Plugin which makes scaling even easier.

[@jydwork1]

Hi Aaron, keep up the great videos ! Was wondering if you could do a video on exporting drawings out of SketchUp to other CAD formats. Eg. Do you use Layout or SketchUp to export ...advantages and disadvantages of both. Thanks.

[@jonathanmullet192]

Nice video, very helpful. Is there a tool that will allow you to set a distance between objects easily? Say two parallel lines. Is there a way I can select them, and tell SketchUp how far apart they should be?

[@adriaanstrydom4145]

Brilliant

[@ARepublicIfYouCanKeepIt]

Aaron, perhaps you could comment specifically on the scale tool as it relates to components (and copies of components).

[@stephanholland6181]

I love all the videos in this series and usually pick up a good tip, but this one is especially enlightening. I've been using Fredo Scale to do a lot what you did. I never thought to try this stuff with the native tool. Keep 'em coming! A quick question: When drawing a rectangle and entering dimensions, say four by six feet, how do I force one dimension to the red axis and the other to green? My rectangles often end up with the dimensions on the wrong axes. I've been using Sketchup for seven years and I still haven't figured that out.

[@AaronMakingStuff]

Honestly, I usually start to pull out a rectangle and look at the dimensions in the corner then copy them!

[@boydadvisory]

Right click> make a group>draw rectangle> for green axis type dimension required plus unit (ie;1200mm) To dimension red axis type in ,dimension unit ie:,600mm (comma 600mm) only works when you initially make object

[@rickdwyer4658]

When deforming around the center, is it possible to call out an exact size rather than a percentage? I’m trying to make a pyramid with a 12” bottom and a 7” top out of a 12” cube.

[@lingkararsitek3042]

Good part feature

[@sonnytanod8862]

Thanx

[@nperson]

I'm having a problem using the scaling tool to go to a exact dimension. Works fine when using to go to a certain number of feet but when I try to scale to inches, when I press the shift key to enter the " needed to indicate inches, I lose the dimension I want. It goes back to percent scale. Sometimes rarely, I can get it to work. What am I doing wrong?

[@DarkMoonDroid]

You forgot to show us _your*_ neat trick for keeping count of the lumber you're using in a model. If you just make a component "2 x 4" and then use the scale tool to size every use of it, then SU keeps count of how many board feet you need. Instead of making a different component for every single size of 2 x 4 in the model. If I'da known that back in the beginning I wouldn't have ignored Scale all these years. :-/ *You taught me this in your model of a shed.

[@LewisKauffman]

Thanks! I know that using the scale tool can make working with very small objects much easier by scaling them up. What confuses me is the scaling factors. If I scale UP a small object say 100 times. What scale factor would I type in to return it to it's original size?

[@jonomoles]

You would type 0.01 or I think just .01 and save 0.05 seconds!

[@LewisKauffman]

@@jonomoles Thanks!

[@roberthiggins9115]

I have had trouble printing a designed part full size. It always comes out smaller.

[@michelinezreibi9621]

hi Aaron. Can you do Mirror and Copy of the object at the same time with Stretch? normally the Control command copies the objects within the commands. It doesn't work with Stretch.

[@crazyballoonske]

thanks

[@SketchUp]

Any time!

[@cavamanara]

Hello and thanks again Aaron. Question, and what about we, the other 203 countries who uses the metric system, how we enter the total lenght or high on keyboard, for exemple, 1,3 m or 130 cm?

[@AaronMakingStuff]

You can enter any length by entering the unit after, or setting the unit you want to use in your Model Settings!

[@cavamanara]

@@AaronMakingStuff THANKS!!!! Soooo helpfull!!!!!!!

[@marcell_wrochna]

Hi Everyone, First of all, I’m a beginner so sorry for my non-precise use of terms! I’m having a component that has 45 degree ends on both ends (it’s a side element of a box). As the box would have a short and a long side I’d like to draw the side element once and then stretch it to the right size yet keep the 45 degree endings. So far, anything I tried the 45 degree endings got distorted. Any idea? Self-evidently, I don’t only need to stretch it but also need to give a specific size for the outer (the longer) side of the element. Looking forward to hearing from you SketchUpers! Best regards, Marcell

[@jkcrum]

At 6:53 you show the Shift key will 'toggle' to allow uniform scaling. I've never got this to work in 7 years of using Sketchup 17 Make on Windows. As soon as the Shift key is released the object remains stretched in one direction only. Could this be a version issue or a hidden Sketchup setting?

[@SketchUp]

Correct... in older versions you have to hold down Shift to toggle. All videos on this channel show the most recent version of SketchUp, at the time the video is released.

[@jkcrum]

@@SketchUp Thanks! I just tried the online Sketchup Free version and that feature works now.