The client wants the room 800 longer. Redrawing the bay costs half a morning; the STRETCH command in AutoCAD costs three clicks, and the dimension figure updates itself. It is the editing command worth learning earliest — and the one most likely to produce a baffling result if the selection is made the wrong way.
This article measures on AutoCAD 2027 at the Institute to settle one question for good: what actually stretches. For the whole drafting and editing workflow, see the AutoCAD for Construction course.
Using the stretch command: three steps
Type S and press Enter. The first prompt already explains the method, and we copied it verbatim:
Select objects to stretch by crossing-window or crossing-polygon...
Select objects:
The words crossing-window are the whole point. Select by crossing, that is, drag from right to left, or type C and pick two corners. That window has to cut across the object: what lies inside moves, what lies outside stays.
Press Enter and AutoCAD asks:
Specify base point or [Displacement] <Displacement>:
Specify second point or <use first point as displacement>:
Pick a base point and a destination, or pick the base and type the displacement directly, for example @1200,0.
In that example the crossing window covered the right edge of both wall skins and the right end of the dimension. The result: the room grew by 1200, the left wall did not move, and the figure jumped from 4200 to 5400 without being retyped.
The crossing window decides everything
Autodesk's STRETCH page packs the whole rule into two sentences.
The first: "Objects that are partially enclosed by a crossing window are stretched. Objects that are completely enclosed within the crossing window, or that are selected individually, are moved rather than stretched."
The second is sharper still: "STRETCH moves only the vertices and endpoints that lie inside the crossing selection, leaving those outside unchanged."
In a drafter's words: the command does not look at objects, it looks at individual vertices. A vertex inside the crossing window moves; one outside stays. A rectangle with two vertices in and two out gets longer. A rectangle with all four inside simply relocates, exactly like MOVE.
Which is why selecting the whole shape and then complaining that it will not stretch is the commonest misunderstanding about this command.
Six measurements: a line, an arc, a circle
Autodesk does mention the limits, but so briefly that it misleads: "Some types of objects such as circles, ellipses, and blocks, cannot be stretched." That list is not complete, so we measured.
The test: six objects side by side, one crossing window covering exactly the right half of all six, dragged 800 units right. Then each width read back by machine.
| Object | Width before | After | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| A line | 2000 | 2800 | stretched |
| A rectangle (polyline) | 2000 | 2800 | stretched |
| A three-vertex polyline | 2000 | 2800 | stretched |
| An arc | 1200 | 2000 | stretched |
| A circle | 800 | 800 | unchanged |
| A text string | 387 | 387 | unchanged |
Two things follow.
An arc does stretch. Many guides file arcs with circles, but the measurement says otherwise: an arc has two endpoints, and whichever falls inside the window moves, so the arc grew from 1200 to 2000. A circle has no endpoint to move.
The circle and the text did not budge at all in this test, which is more than "did not stretch". The reason: their defining points — the circle's centre and the text's insertion point — both lay outside the crossing window. Had the window covered those points, both would have relocated whole.
Three real jobs it is made for
Lengthening a bay. Cross-select everything to the right of the point you are moving, including the ends of every dimension involved. Pick a base, type the displacement. The dimensions update, which is the reason to dimension with the dimension commands rather than typing figures by hand — covered in our article on dimensions in AutoCAD.
Sliding an opening along a wall. Cross-select the whole opening but stop short of both wall ends. Every vertex of the opening is then inside, so it relocates whole while the wall on each side gives and takes.
Raising part of a section. Cross-select horizontally, covering everything above the level you are lifting. Press F8 first so the drag goes straight up rather than askew.
Stretch, move or scale: choosing between them
These three get mixed up, and the consequences differ sharply.
MOVE relocates the whole object and changes no dimension. Use it when the member is right but its position is wrong.
SCALE enlarges or shrinks by the same factor in every direction. Make the room 200 longer and its width grows too, and so does the wall thickness. That is almost never what documentation work wants.
STRETCH is the only one of the three that pulls one side while holding the other. It is also the only one that carries dimensions along.
There is a fourth, less used, that suits a single line: LENGTHEN, aliased LEN. It takes a new total length or an increment directly, with no selection window at all.
Snap first, so the dimension is exact
This small detail decides whether the drawing is clean or dirty.
When picking the base and destination by eye, the displacement comes out as some odd number like 1198.7 rather than 1200. It does not show on screen, but the dimension will report it at once, and every sum afterwards is off.
Two reliable methods. First: turn on endpoint snap and pick from one existing marker to another — the snap modes are covered in our article on object snap in AutoCAD. Second, and neater: pick any base point and type the displacement as relative coordinates, @1200,0 for instance. Coordinate entry is covered in our article on entering coordinates in AutoCAD.
The second habit is the better one, because it gives an exact figure whether or not the drawing has a marker to snap to. It also survives a drawing that someone else set up badly: no matter where their gridlines sit or how their snap is configured, a typed displacement lands exactly where you said.
One last check worth making before you press Enter on the selection. AutoCAD reports how many objects it found. If that number is larger than you expected, the window has caught something you cannot see on screen, and the stretch will move it too. Press Escape and narrow the window rather than finding out afterwards.
A crossing polygon for awkward shapes
A rectangular window is not always the right tool. When the parts that must move do not line up in a neat band — a stepped foundation, a stair run, a facade with returns — a rectangle either misses something or catches something it should not.
At the selection prompt, type CP. AutoCAD then lets you draw a crossing polygon: click a run of points around exactly the region you want, press Enter, and every vertex inside that outline moves while everything else stays. It is the same rule as before, applied to a shape you drew yourself.
Two habits make it reliable. Draw the polygon generously in the open and tightly where it has to pass between two things that must be separated. And check the count AutoCAD reports before pressing Enter: if it says more objects found than you expected, the outline caught something extra.
Three things often repeated that are not true
| Often repeated | What the 2027 release does |
|---|---|
| Any selection method will do | Enclose the whole shape and it only relocates, exactly as Autodesk describes |
| Arcs cannot be stretched, like circles | Measured: the arc grew from 1200 to 2000 in the same test |
| Dimensions must be retyped after a stretch | With the dimension end inside the window, the figure updates itself |
Frequently asked questions
What is the alias for the stretch command in AutoCAD?
S. Do not confuse it with SC for SCALE, which resizes the whole object proportionally instead of pulling one side.
Why did the whole shape just relocate?
Because your crossing window enclosed it completely. Autodesk states it plainly: a fully enclosed object is moved, not stretched. Drag the window so that it cuts across the shape.
How do I keep the drag exactly horizontal?
Press F8 for orthogonal mode before picking the second point, or type the displacement as relative coordinates such as @800,0.
Can the stretch command in AutoCAD resize text and blocks?
It cannot stretch them. They only relocate, and only when their defining point lies inside the crossing window.
Do dimensions update after a stretch?
Yes, when the dimension's endpoint lies inside the crossing window. In the example above the figure went from 4200 to 5400.
How do I stretch several separate places in one pass?
At the selection prompt type CP for a crossing polygon instead of a rectangle, then draw an outline around exactly the parts that should move.