Change dimensions

James Aven

 I draw a rectangle but not allowed to spec dimensions. Or, once a rectangle is drawn, how does one change the size thereof? Thanks for any help, got to say I am fumbling around after being away from AutoCAD for too many years and now trying to adapt to BricsCAD.

Anthony Apostolaros

You can specify size while drawing it. If you want it 5 units wide and 3 units high, enter @5,3
Or draw it at the origin and then move it into place; that way you don't need the @ symbol.

James Aven

 Thank you Anthony. That did work. I see bCAD seems to rely a lot more than I am accustomed to use of the command line. It does seem remarkable there is no way to click on the dimensions and enter the desired figure. I am thinking this would be very difficult if one got a ways into a drawing and found a need to change the dimension of some elements.

Anthony Apostolaros

There are multiple ways to do everything, but in this case the command-line method is the only one I know.
In general, I tend to use the command line a lot because it's what I know. I started using Autocad when the command line was the only method.
I used Vectorworks for a few years, and I liked that approach, but work requires me to use DWG format.
The DWG format doesn't support a single-vector rectangle as an entity type. The rectangle command draws a 4-vertex polyline.
You can edit the vertices of any polyline in the Properties window, but in absolute coordinates, not relative. I don't use that.
When I want to change the size of a rectangle, I copy it, and then drag the vertices of the original rectangle to the new corners.

Robt Deans

@James Aven:

...this would be very difficult if one got a ways into a drawing and found a need to change the dimension of some elements.

Using DIMASSOC (Dim Associate), if you modify objects / elements, dimension will update accordingly.