Any object may be scaled by an arbitrary amount. This yields an object that has grown or shrunk by the corresponding scale factor relative to the active coordinate frame. Since the scaling is applied relative to the active coordinate frame, scaling generally also results in object translation (except for a point on the origin of the active frame).
Measurements from an instrument should not be scaled The instrument should be scaled instead, particularly with polar instruments such as Laser Trackers and Total Stations. To do so, right-click on the instrument and go to its properties to find similar controls. By scaling an instrument, all the measurements form that instrument are scaled relative to the object's base frame and measurement integrity is maintained.
Scaling the instrument may not always be possible when working with imported data and is not necessary when working with design points or constructions. Therefore, similar controls are available to directly scale selected objects with respect to the current working frame.
Two different methods can be used for scaling. To Scale One or More Objects:
Choose Scale Objects
At the prompt, select the objects to scale, then press Enter. The Scaling dialog will be displayed
Choose the scaling method (either Calculate Scale Based on CTE or Enter Scale Manually) using the radio buttons on the left.
Calculate Scale Based on CTE. With this option, first select a Material and corresponding Coefficient of Thermal Expansion(CTE) from the dropdown list. The Edit button offers direct access to the materials list.
The next step is to edit the Initial (or Actual) and Final (or Reference) temperatures. SA calculates the scale factor automatically using the linear thermal expansion equation. The material entered should be the material of the objects being scaled. For example, if you are scaling measurements of a steel plate at 78 degrees, steel should be used for the material and the Initial temperature. If the nominal part was designed at 68 degrees this should be entered as the final temperature. This will result in the measurements being scaled down from the current 78 to the expected 68 degrees.
Its also important to remember that scaling does not account for thermal gradients. Therefore it is very important that parts are thermally stable when measured.
Enter Scale Manually. You can enter your own scale factor. As an example, a scale factor of 2.0 will double the size of the object. A common use for this operation would be to correct for objects importing using the wrong units. You can easily scale from inches to millimeters for example by applying a scale factor of 25.4.
If scaling manually, enter the desired scale factor. If scaling using CTE, choose the appropriate material and initial/final temperature. Then click OK.