The Zoom, Pan, Shrink and Size To Fit commands in the View Menu may be used to control the scale of the graphics displayed in the Frame, Load and Plot windows.  Each view within a window has its own scale and centre of interest. This means you can have a close-up plan view and a far away 3D view in the same window and simply switch from one to another using the View button. You can also select these commands from the View toolbar.

Zoom allows you to increase the size of the drawing in the front window.

§    Choose Zoom from the View Menu

§    Move the pointer to the top left hand corner of the area you wish to view in close detail

§    Drag a rectangle down and to the right which encloses the area of interest and release the mouse button

The window's contents will be re-drawn to display the part of the structure contained in the rectangle you have drawn.

If the mouse you are using has a wheel it can be used to dynamically zoom the view.

Pan allows you to shift the display of the structure within the window upwards, downwards, to the left or right.

§    Choose Pan from the View Menu

The cursor will change to a four arrowed cursor

§    Press inside the window and hold down the mouse button

§    Drag the drawing to its new location

§    Release the mouse button to re-draw the contents of the window.

You can use the Ctrl-E keyboard shortcut to use the Pan command.

If not enough memory is available to move the image, a rectangle the size of the window will be moved around as you move the mouse.

Shrink allows you to decrease the size of the drawing on the screen by 50%.

§    Choose Shrink from the View Menu

The drawing will shrink down to 50% of its current size and be re-drawn.

If the mouse you are using has a wheel it can be used to dynamically zoom or shrink the view.

Size To Fit automatically resizes the drawing in the front window so that the structure just fits inside the window in the current view.  This is most useful after you have been zooming, panning or shrinking as it returns you to a viewing scale that just fits the frame inside the window.

Size To Fit Frame fits the whole frame inside the window.

Size To Fit Selection fits the selected members and joints inside the window.

Size To Fit Clipping fits the range of clipping inside the window.

The Home key can be used as a short cut to the Size to Fit command.