Scaling problem

How about attaching a demo that illustrates your task?

Hi Gustav

Try Report3 and in the code change A to 8 and R to 10. It all works, then change ScaleHeight to 40 and see what happens.

I must be doing something wrong?
Report3.mdb

It draws a quite different figure:


However, it seems like scaling only influences the circle.

It actually scales the lines or boxes which then pushes the circle out of position.

Why would a ratio of 140:42 mean anything?

I don't follow. Your original circle was not pushed out of position.

Hi Scott.  It's not designed to draw a circle. I merely make the point that arcs, as a portion of circle, are not scaled whilst lines and boxes are.

Hi Gustav I should have said that it appears to send arcs off center as your comment above

This is a very small part of a huge Access DB. The program covers all a user needs. I really don't want  users having to open another application just to print a report that won't be able use the already entered data.

It's just a report showing a section of a picture frame molding.

The big problem is understanding scaling. But if access can't do it?

Well, but we have nothing to work with.
The first drawing could be understood, the next can be anything for "non-molders", and we have very little idea of what you are trying to do neither why: What scaling, and in relation to what?

It's not that Access cannot understand scaling, it's that the graphics engine in Access was designed around presenting nicely formatted data, not drawing pictures. Even with professional images on a report (which I know is different from what you're doing) they sometimes come out skewed and odd looking.

I guess what I'm saying is - don't beat a dead horse. You may find that another you'll have to work with Crystal Reports, or something of that nature, to get where you're at. I'm not trying to dissuade you from trying this, of course, only trying to let you know the limitations of VBA.

Hi Gustav

All I am trying to do is understand the relationship between 140 scalewidth and 42 scaleheight so that when I want a line to meet a circle or arc it does exactly that. If the scale is wrong they do not intersect correctly. It unsettles me when I don't know how something works.

So it is not for a specific purpose, it's so that next time this comes up and it will I know how to handle it.

It works the same for other printers I have tested

OK.
But it might help if you posted the code.

Well, well, well. How could I be so stupid. It's the size of the report that I created that governs the ratio. I assumed that if you were specifying the scaleleft and right and scale top and height that it would ignore the size of the underlying report scale and just put an invisible border around the drawing on the printed page. It does not. How weird is that.?

To get this to work with the specified scale ratio 140:42 you need to create a report that is 2.5cm high and 7 cm wide


The code was in the attached sample db. but here is the latest version:

Private Sub Detail_Format(Cancel As Integer, FormatCount As Integer)
Dim W As Variant
Dim H As Variant
Dim R As Variant
Dim A As Variant
Dim PI As Variant
Dim C As Variant
Dim Text As Variant
Dim LL As Variant
Dim RW As Variant
Dim RH As Variant
Me.FontName = Arial
Me.FontSize = 4

W = 20
H = 22
R = 4
A = 5
RW = 4
RH = 18
PI = 3.141592654
C = 2
Text = 4
LL = 3

    Me.DrawWidth = 1
    Me.ScaleLeft = -20
    Me.ScaleTop = -20
    Me.ScaleWidth = 140
    Me.ScaleHeight = 42
   

   
    Me.Circle (W - A - (R * H) / Sqr(A * A + H * H) + A * R / H * (1 - A / (Sqr(A * A + H * H))), R), R, 0, Atn(A / H), PI / 2
   
    Me.Line (W, H)-(W - A + A / H * (R - (A * R) / (Sqr(A * A + H * H))), R - A * R / (Sqr(A * A + H * H))), 0
    Me.Line (W, H)-(RW, H)
    Me.Line (RW, H)-(RW, H - RH)
    Me.Line (RW, H - RH)-(0, 4)
    Me.Line (0, H - RH)-(0, 0)
    Me.Line (0, 0)-(W - A - (R * H) / Sqr(A * A + H * H) + A * R / H * (1 - A / (Sqr(A * A + H * H))), 0)
    Me.Line (W, H + C)-(W, H + C + LL)
    Me.Line Step(0, -LL * 0.5)-Step(-0.5 * (W - Text), 0), vbRed
    Me.Line Step(-Text, 0)-Step(-0.5 * (W - Text), 0)
    Me.Line Step(0, LL * 0.5)-Step(0, -LL)
    Me.Line (-C + -LL, H)-Step(LL, 0), 0
    Me.Line Step(-0.5 * LL, 0)-Step(0, 0.5 * -(H - Text))
    Me.Line Step(0, -Text)-Step(0, 0.5 * -(H - Text))
    Me.Line Step(-0.5 * LL, 0)-Step(LL, 0)
   
    If RW > 0 Then
    Me.Line (C + RW, H - RH)-Step(LL, 0)
    Me.Line Step(-0.5 * LL, 0)-Step(0, 0.5 * (RH - Text)), vbRed
    Me.Line Step(0, Text)-Step(0, 0.5 * (RH - Text))
    Me.Line (0, H - RH + (0.5 * C))-Step(0, LL)
    CurrentX = -C - (0.5 * LL) - 2
    CurrentY = 0.5 * (H - 0.5 * Text) - 0.5
    Print H
    CurrentX = (0.5 * (W - Text)) - 0.5
    CurrentY = H + C + (-0.5 * LL) + 1.5
    Print W
    CurrentX = (0 + RW + C) - 1
    CurrentY = H - RH + (0.5 * RH) - 1.5
    Print RH
    CurrentX = 0 + 0.2
    CurrentY = H - RH + 1
    Print RW
    End If
   
     
End Sub