Re: A couple of questions - sizing objects and printing

[Chris Green <cl isbd net>]

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 06:09:54PM +0100, Steffen Macke wrote:
> Chris,
>
> welcome back!
>
> On 01/27/2012 01:12 PM, Chris Green wrote:
> >     It is possible to set the size of an object directly?  I.e. can I
> >     specify that a rectangle is, say, 4.5 x 6.0 cm?  It can be difficult
> >     setting an exact size with the mouse.
>
> When you resize objects, the status bar will tell you the dimensions
> of your objects - are you aware of this feature?

Yes, and it's difficult to set accurate sizes with the mouse using this
feature, that's how I have been doing it.


> Setting the correct grid size and "Snap to Grid" will help you to
> size your objects quickly and precisely.

That only works if I want to set a size that fits the grid.  Typically I
will use the grid at some nice integral scaling factor.  It's then OK if
I want to set a rectangle to, say, 50cm x 100cm but what happens if I
need to set something to a size like 497mm x 942mm, quite likely if I'm
drawing out a layout of some equipment or similar.


> See the Dia manual:
> http://dia-installer.de/doc/en/canvas-chapter.html#gridlines
> For the example you've mentioned, I would switch off the dynamic
> grid and choose 0.5 for the grid spacing.
>
> Does this information solve your problem?
Well it does for shapes which happen to have convenient sizes which are
multiples of the grid, however I do have one which isn't such a size.

-- 
Chris Green