HOW TO ENLARGE ITEM???

[lindseyiron]

I AM SELF TAUGHT ON MY PLASMACAM... NO CAD EXPERIENCE OTHERWISE... BUT I HAVE A QUESTION. FOR INSTANCE, I DRAW A SCROLL 1 INCH WIDE X 8 INCHES LONG. I WANT TO ENLARGE SCROLL TO 15 INCHES, BUT KEEP THE SAME WIDTH @ 1 INCH WITHOUT STRETCHING AND DISTORTING. HOW DO I DO THIS?? LOKING FOR ANY INPUT.
THANK YOU, MONICA

[mdwalker]

Monica,

There are two scale commands in the PlasmaCam software. One is the "Scale" command and the other is the "Scale Height" command. The scale command will scale the drawing in all directions. If you only want to scale in one direction you can rotate your drawing so that the direction you want to scale is oriented up and down on your screen. Then use the scale height command to scale it to your dimensions then rotate the drawing back to its normal orientation. If you need more help on getting the exact dimensions let me know and I will try to help you with that. If this won't work for what you are needing done post the file you are working with and I will see if there are any other ways to accomplish this.

Danny

[lindseyiron]

THIS IS "FOR INSTANCE" I DEAL WITH USING SAME DESIGN, USED SMALLER, AND LARGER. MY PROBLEM IS, TAKE THIS SCROLL PATTERN. I MAY NEED TO LEAVE THE THICKNESS THE SAME, BUT ENLARGE 2 X, OR JUST A FEW INCHES, BUT THE THICKNESS IS WHAT I REALLY NEED WITHOUT THE DISTORTION. THERE HAS TO BE A WAY TO GET A SPECIFIC SIZE. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
THANX, MONICA
I HAVE TRIED TO POST THE DESIGN, NOW ALL OF A SUDDEN IT WONT LET ME..UG

[MQUICK]

This may not be the only way but........ If you have autocad or another cad program that will let you offset a line. Make the scroll to the size you want. Keep only 1 side of the scroll line. Say it's 1" wide, just pick a side. Save it as a dxf file. Load it into your cad program and use the offset command at 1". Save it and export it back into Pcam. Not the the best but it works.

[lindseyiron]

HEY ITS WORTH A TRY. THANK YOU VERY MUCH

[geo4932]

Monica,
As a matter of etiquette you should turn off your "Caps Lock". Anyway, to accomplish what you want, scale your drawing to size. Break the line so that you have just the outside profile as a single line. Select the line and then click Copy and type in @0,0 and hit Enter. You will have a copy right on top of the original line so you won't see it. Click on the line once which will select just one of the lines. Select "Edit - Offset" from the menu. Type in the thickness, example .25 and hit Enter. Click just off of the line to the side you want to make the inside profile. You will have to do some editing and trimming and then link segments.

George

[Metal Man]

good job george. offset is the key to make thin lines wide enough, to let them cut correctly. Play with it ,it calls for an offset dist. (I think ) must click on inside or outside of line you want to offset from.
George I love Your DHC 2 Model but I aint to crazy about the Digital Height Control on PlasmaCams DHC Model.

I run both of them 1. at scool and 1 in my own shop > Hard to Teach students on a machine that is not consistent ON The Z Movement

[lindseyiron]

Thank you George for the information.
I have owned a Plasma Cam for about 8 years or so. When I first purchased it and needed help, and ran out of my "free time" after 3 months , I purchased additional help from Plasma Cam. I laminated my stapled instruction booklet that I received with the Plasma Cam, so I could look at it more than once without tearing it. I am sorry to say that the "Technical Help" was a little less then good for the money. I have since taught myself the best that I could with what I have. I have found a great site to share my designs with, to purchase designs, and to donate to, which I have done all. I needed a question answered, and you need to attack my ?etiquette?. Thank You again for your answer.
This will probably get me kicked off of this site.. but I needed to comment on this.

[Scratch]

Wow... I thought George was being "waaaaaay" more polite about the yelling than I would have been...