a consequence of scale line width

[handrawn]

making up some strip frames in xtreme from no-fill rectangle quickshapes, I was reminded of something that puzzled me greatly when I first started using xaraX > xtreme

if scale line widths is enabled, then dragging out one side of the shape causes the opposite side to displace [shift]

this does not happen if scale line widths is disabled

until I worked this out I was very confused - because the line widths [here 1pix throughout] are not being changed, so it is not intuitive behaviour to me

I just post this up in case it is confusing anyone else

[Egg Bramhill]

Yes, it's one that's always bugged me too. I tend to have scale line width off by default or avoid resizing using the Selector tool, prefer using the move nodes option when possible.

I notice on quite a few attached xars that things aren't aligned correctly and I think this is the cause.

For those unsure of what Steve is getting at SEE HERE

Edit: In the screen video it should read "Now with the “Scale Line Widths” set to On, repeat the scale."

[handrawn]

thanks for the video Egg

[timhines]

Interesting. Looks what it's trying to do is to scale the width of the vertical lines as they are stretched wider, but because the vertical and horizontal lines of the rectangle are not independent, the effect is the offset.

This wouldn't show if the object was scaled up the same amount in both directions, and probably not if it was broken into separate pieces.

[jclements]

One mode scales from the visual outside edge of a lines "thickness", the scales other from its centerline (in otherwords, what you see when you go to wireframe mode). No?

[steve.ledger]

Another point of view, similar to Egg, but slightly different way of looking at it.
Watch the left edge of the white and yellow rectangles.

[handrawn]

thanks all for the comments

@TIMHINES - Tim you are right, it does not occur if the box is dragged out with fixed aspect

@JCLEMENTS - what you say seems to be the case John - but why does it do this?

@ SLEDGER Steve, were your white and yellow boxes grouped? If grouped they would scale as one object [presumably], if not grouped, they don't, and this seems to add permanent shift after several drags out and in [EDIT: that is noticeable after several drags, if this is occurring it will be there from the start]

[jclements]

Why?

I think it is because both means of scaling are useful, depending upon the situation. But how do you implement the toggling between the methods.

Since "/" controls line weight scaling, I assume clever Xara programmers concluded there wasn't any need to have two icons in the info bar to toggle scaling modes, just roll the toggle feature in with line weight scaling. Also, the Object Alignment functions have similar modes. They are all different sides of the same coin.

They've economized the interface, having one icon control the mode of multiple functions... it is just different from how other programs approached the issue.

[handrawn]

I understand that John

If it were so though I would have thought that [with line scale on] it would shift in fixed aspect too - but it does not...