Maintain distance between lines when scaling?

[Anonymous]

I'm working in 2D autocad and I'm basically looking at a doughnut, meaning a small circle inside of a larger circle. There is 15 feet of space in between the circles and I want to be able to scale the "doughnut" but maintain that 15 foot distance between the inner and outer circles...Is there a way to do that? Right now, when I scale the circles together, the space between the lines also gets larger or smaller, but what I want is for the space to remain 15 feet when I scale the circles. Please help

[vinodkl]

Hi,

Can be a little tricker for a beginner to get that😉 but it's doable. See attachment Hope that helps🙂

[Anonymous]

Thanks for trying. I opened the file, but it only works if I make the doughnut larger using the block's triangular handle (if that's the term for it?). When I try to make the doughnut larger or smaller using the "scale" command, I have the same problem where the distance between the circles changes...

I'm going to have a bunch of these doughnuts overlapping to create a design, and will need to scale them together, so I need something that works with the "scale" command...

[h_s_walker]

The only way it will work is if you use the "triangle" 

You cannot maintain a fixed distance if you scale the whole block using the scale command.

eg 15 scaled by 2 is going to change to 30 and not stay as 15

[vinodkl]

Hi,

The only way you could do what you asked for is by using the "Triangle grip"🙂 There is no other way to maintain the distance of 15' between the two circles when using the "scale" command.

If you are trying to create a design using many of these doughnuts then you need to scale them individually using the "triangle grips".

[timothy_crouse]

You may have better luck using parametric constraints, and possibly combining the concept in a

block using a lookup table.

Attached is a basic idea, you can drag the outer constraint OR use the parameters manager to set the value of the diameter.  But you cannot scale the object with the scale command as it is controlled via the geometric constraints at this point.

Does this Help?

-Tim C.