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Scale

In one sentence: Scale selected sketch geometry by a numeric factor about a specified centre point, shrinking or enlarging it proportionally.

Overview

Workbench: Sketcher · Menu: Sketch → Sketcher tools → Scale
Toolbar: Sketcher Tools · Shortcut: none

Scale multiplies all coordinate offsets from the centre point by the specified factor. A factor > 1 enlarges; 0 < factor < 1 shrinks; a negative factor also mirrors. All constraints that reference the scaled geometry are preserved.

Intuition

Think of a photocopier with a zoom setting: you feed in the original and get back a version that is 150% or 75% of the original size, centred on the same point. Scale does the same thing to sketch geometry.

When to use it

  • You drew a profile in approximate size and want to rescale it to the correct size without re-drawing.
  • You are making a scaled copy of a reference profile.
  • You want to proportionally shrink a complex outline.

When NOT to use it

  • You want to resize one dimension without the other — use Distance constraints to individually control width and height.
  • You want uniform sizing from the start — apply dimensional constraints as you draw; scaling after the fact is rarely the clearest parametric approach.

Step-by-step walkthrough

  1. Select the geometry to scale.
  2. Activate Scale from the toolbar or menu.
  3. Click the centre point of the scaling operation (the fixed point that does not move).
  4. Enter the scale factor in the task panel (e.g. 2.0 = double size, 0.5 = half size).
  5. Click OK.

Tip

If you want the geometry to remain at the sketch origin after scaling, click the origin point (0, 0) as the centre before entering the factor.

Parameters

Parameter Type Default Description
Scale factor Float 1.0 Multiplier applied to all geometry distances from the centre point.
Centre point 2-D coordinate Interactive The fixed point about which scaling is applied.
Copy Toggle Off If on, the original geometry is preserved and a scaled copy is created.

Common mistakes and pitfalls

Constraints become redundant after scaling

Cause: Dimensional constraints (lengths, radii) are set to specific values; after scaling the actual geometry changes but old constraint values may conflict.
Fix: After scaling, update the dimensional constraints to the new expected values, or set them to Reference mode before scaling and re-add driving constraints afterward.

Python API

# Scale is GUI-only in FreeCAD 1.1.
# TODO: verify whether SketchObject exposes a scale() method.
print("Use the Scale tool interactively.")

See also