An important aspect of 3D modeling software is its ability to apply affine transformations. So far we have supported three affine transformations - Translation (Moving the geometry), Rotation, Reflection (Flipping the geometry). Today we are adding two more to that list - Scaling and Shearing.

With scaling you can resize a geometry or a group of geometries - uniformly or non-uniformly. This gives you the ability to resize different components of your model relative to other components. Non-uniform scaling gives you ability to create more interesting shapes than were possible before - e.g. Ellipses and Ellipsoids.

Shearing is another useful transform. It comes handy when you want to skew an object sideways while still keeping the surfaces in perpendicular direction flat.

A demo can explain much better than the prose can, so here you go.