How can I uniformly scale a set of faces on the XY plane similar to Inset or Shrink/Fatten?

Question

In this thread exercise I stumbled upon a problem where I realized that scaling the middle edge loop outward to create a torus approximation does not work as it is not scaling uniformly. The Shrink/Fatten with Alt+S will work, but it will pinch the geometry when applying Subdivision Modifier.

So instead of scaling the middle edge loop outward, I wanted to find a workaround and do something that scales the upper and lower outer edge loops inward on only the XY plane, similar to the behavior of the Inset feature.

So I tried Shrink/Fatten, but unlike in the case of the middle edge loop, this will now also scale the Z component. I was wondering if there is a scale similar to the Inset feature that would operate only on the XY plane?

Answer 1

//EDIT: Below you will find workarounds, but sorry, I forgot the most obvious. So first of all the solution: If you have the Edit Mesh Tools enabled, just select the top and bottom outer edges and choose Edge > Offset Edges > Move and enter a negative value for Width.

And now for the workarounds if you do not want to use the Edit Mesh Tools for whatever reason:

The first solution that comes to my mind as a workaround would be to bevel the top and bottom edge with one segment, then selecting the beveled inner edges which moved towards the middle edge and press X > Dissolve Edges. Not great, but not too complicated and does the job as a workaround. And you can enter a value if you want an exact distance to move inwards.

But since you mention the Inset feature, why not use that? Select all with A, then deselect the outer face loops by holding Shift+Alt while clicking the vertical edges between them. Afterwards you can dissolve the top and bottom outer edges. Of course you can enter a value here as well.