Change multiple circle diameters simultaneously

[David O'Neil]

First, my hat is off for this great program. It has came in very handy.

My question is "Is it possible to change the diameters of multiple circles to a given diameter at one time, and keep the original centers of the circles?" Pasting the attributes does not work on the diameter, and I cannot find a method to resize multiple circles while keeping their center points. I figured I'd ask, though, as I have a situation in which I keep having to change the diameter of a hundred or so circles. It gets tiring pasting into each height or width edit box for each circle independently, and then hitting 'Enter' to make the circle change size.

I thought that there might be a method of creating clones of a circle that resize when the circle is resized, but could not figure out how to do that, either. I'm not complaining too loudly, though, as I love the other power Xara has, and recognize it as being a great program.

Thank you,
David O'Neil

[rpc9943]

hmmm im thiking you want to use shift drag? or was it ctrl drag? it should scale from the center unless ive completely lost it

Oh wait i see what youre saying you want to scale from the center points of each object.... i know what you mean- i really don't know if thats possible, that kind of sucks that its not implemented if it truly isnt. There should be some sort of modifier to do this, if its not there already- I'd like to know if there is too

ROnc

[gwpriester]

Welcome to the Xtreme Conference David

Hmmm? Not that I know of.

But you can clone a circle (Ctrl k or Edit > Clone) which creates a duplicate in the same place as the original. You can scale the clone or clones, then select the entire set (drag a selection marquee around the circles with the Selector Tool (the arrow pointer) and then resize the selection.

Not sure if that is what you had in mind though.

Gary

[David O'Neil]

Welcome to the Xtreme Conference David

Thank you.

Hmmm? Not that I know of.

But you can clone a circle (Ctrl k or Edit > Clone) which creates a duplicate in the same place as the original. You can scale the clone or clones, then select the entire set (drag a selection marquee around the circles with the Selector Tool (the arrow pointer) and then resize the selection.

Not sure if that is what you had in mind though.

No it wasn't, but thanks for taking the time to respond (ROnc too). I already have all the circles drawn, I just want to resize them all to a certain diameter in one fell swoop. I don't believe it is possible in Xara, but I wanted to ask, in case someone knew something I didn't know.

Again, thanks.
David

[David O'Neil]

I have had this question for over three weeks, so of course I would figure out a workable solution within two hours of posting the question here.

For those who ask in the future, the solution is to give all of your circles a 0.1 pt diameter, and then vary the overall diameter using the outline width. That way you can paste attributes and change all of them in a pinch. Duh!

It would still be nice to change all of the circles to 0.1pt diameter in one swoop, though.

David

[jamesmc]

Well, you can resize things in a group, with a reasonable amount of accuracy, but not precision.

First would be your set up.

(1) Windows>Grid>Snap to Grid
(2) Utilities>Layers
(a) name your Layers as you make your different size circles.
(1) I named mine small circle, big circle,black circle.

You can make the layers before or after you make the circles. You'll just have to group the circles and 'cut' them if layers are not made yet. Make the new Layer, then paste. Be sure and backup your file first.

Okay, now that all your Layers are named and the different sized and/or colored circles are named, make sure they are all grouped. See figure 1
I'm using the Black Circle to show you the movement AFTER the large circle group is resized. The Black Circle will (1) Give you a reference for a start point and (2) Give you a resize reference. See figure 2.
Note: I hovered the black circle over the top light blue large circle.

Using the arrow keys (alt arrow if you need more precise of 1 pixel movement)
you can re-arrange the large circles back to their normal positon after resizing. The snapping to grid and grid marks will give you an accurate way of measuring diameter. This is not precise as it is an 'eyeball' approach, but it's pretty close.

You can also change the subdivision between the grid into the marks you desire, pixels, inches, centimeters, etc. Also, you can make the grid rectangular or isometric.

There is a little 'Kentucky Windage' involved in eyeballing the resizing as a group, but it's a time saver and is fairly effective way to use groups.

[David O'Neil]

And after all that, I found it is so simple, I can't believe I didn't figure it out earlier.

Just select all the circles, then click the 'ellipse' button, and change the width and height in the boxes.

Just goes to show you what happens when you get a program with too much power behind it! You quit thinking of the simple solutions, and then when they strike you, you feel stupid.

Anyway, thanks.
David

-Edit-
And thanks, James, but that is not what I was trying to do. This method keeps the centers where they previously were.

[jamesmc]

heh heh, yep.

I hate when the answer stares you in the face mocking you all the while. heh heh

[Egg Bramhill]

Hi and Welcome David,

How about using the Contour tool? Select all the circles, apply the required pixel increase, then click on the Inset Path icon to leave only the outer circles.

[David O'Neil]

But for some reason, with 186 circles, Xara won't apply the new values to all of them. A little glitch, but working them in groups seems to overcome it.

David