Interactive Transformations

Transformations such as resizing, moving, rotating, and skewing are fundamental operations in design. These actions can be performed interactively using the tools described below, or via numeric input within the Transformations Window.

This chapter focuses on transformations performed interactively within the Work Area of Studio NEXT.

The first step is to select the objects intended for transformation. Users may select individual or multiple objects within the Work Area or via the Object Inspector. Alternatively, multiple objects can be selected using a Marquee Box.

Selection with the Marquee Box

While Studio is in Selection/Transform mode, place the cursor on an empty space within the Work Area. Press and hold the primary mouse button, drag the cursor to a new position, and release the button. This action creates a marquee box that selects the objects contained within or touched by it.

There are two distinct methods for selecting objects with a marquee box:

Drag the marquee box from left to right to select all objects touched by the box, including those only partially enclosed.
Drag the marquee box from right to left to select only the objects that are completely enclosed within the box.

Interactive Transformation Techniques

Move or Resize

Object selected for moving and/or resizing.

To transform objects interactively in the Work Area, first select the objects and then:

Proportional scaling

Non-proportional scaling

To adjust size proportionally, click and drag any corner handle with the primary mouse button.
To adjust size non-proportionally, click and drag a middle handle with the primary mouse button.

Rotate or Skew

To switch the transformation mode from move/resize to rotate/skew, click inside the selection box. In rotate/skew mode, the center of rotation marker can be repositioned using the cursor.

Object selected for rotation and/or skewing.

Rotation

Skewing

To rotate, click and drag any corner handle using the primary mouse button. Note: If the Apply Rotation to Fill Stitches option is enabled in the Settings > Project Switches, the stitch angle will automatically adjust during rotation.
To skew, click and drag any middle handle using the primary mouse button.

Repositioning the center of rotation allows you to specify the exact axis for the transformation. Furthermore, the rotation center point can be precisely placed by snapping it to the grid, guide lines, object contours, or nodes. Snap configurations are accessible via Options > Snap Nodes and Markers.

Object selected for rotation and/or skewing, center of rotation moved aside

Object selected for rotation and/or skewing. The center of rotation has been moved to the top-right position.

Object rotated around the new center of rotation.