[Pro] Drawing Precise Arcs

Audacitor · August 5, 2010, 2:49pm

Hey All,

I’m trying to draw a radio active warning sign, which involves drawing arcs of 60º.

How do I do this? So far I can only seem to constrain angles to 45º increments.

If I can’t do this, consider this a feature request. For now, I’ll just copy the paths out of an existing SVG.

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abrax · August 6, 2010, 11:37am

OK,

So I’ve drawn a sign using just a standard features.

the point 0.0 is needed somewhere inside the drawing area, so catch it and move it inside the page,
intaglio needs to be set up for snapping “smart guides” and “snap to point” have to be enabled.
draw “l” line at the length of the outer diameter, grab and place it’s midle in the point 0.0
while it is still selected opt+d to duplicate it , rotate 60degr, “s” grab and place it’s middle in the 0.0 point
do the same for the third line,
draw “a” arc from the 0.0 point to the end of one of the end of any line, then move it to the end of another line.
follow this idea to have 3 identical arcs,
delete the long lines,
draw 3 lines using the inside diameter lenghts You know the method,
draw the inside arcs,
delete the 3 lines and draw 6 lines from one arc end to the smaller arc corresponding end to get the shape.
now You’ve got it but not the closed paths, so “s” select all and chose convert arcs to curves,
I don’t know why but converting arcs to curves makes 2 points at the starting point of the arc. When You “x” box select these points You are selecting the 3 points and the join command is not working as it joins only 2 points, so the upper point of the arc (which is actually the end of a line not the end of the curve) needs to be deleted before we can join the two lasting points (we need one point from the line and just one end of the old arc. When You “x” select the arc’s end, You are selecting this particular unneeded point, so delete it (leaving it causes that “x” box selecting this group selects 3 points). Now You should have the same shape but without this faulty point.
So after deleting the unneeded point “x” box select 2 points and then average and then join them. (You can try to grab a point to see if it belongs to a line or the arc and then opt+z to undo the grab. Click on it once more without moving a mouse to select just this point → I hope You get the idea)
repeat with all the other corners
add add a circle in the middle
select all and combine,
set the fill and correct the stroke,
and You’ve got Your sign…

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Frank · August 6, 2010, 12:14pm

Maybe this lets get you started: http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/5315/radiosign.png

Cheers

Frank

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Julie · August 6, 2010, 9:10pm

How does one do a “subtract boolean?” And what does it do?

Cheers to you too,

Julie

Maybe this lets get you started: http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/5315/radiosign.png

Cheers

Frank

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Frank · August 6, 2010, 11:11pm

Select both objects (make clear the star is upon the circle) go → Object-> Paths-> Subtract and it will subtract one form from the other.

Cheers

Frank

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abrax · August 7, 2010, 7:27am

Frank,

I’m having difficulties with Your method…

After I make substract I’m having the nice shape but I can’t find my way to separate the path or fill it where it needs to be filled… Erasing unneeded seems impossible…

I tried differently, after placing a star on a circle, I made exclude which makes erasing poins possible, but still there is too mch work to find the right shape.

Can You please make a step by step guide?

I’m always considering the easiest way to achieve a goal and Your way seems much faster

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abrax · August 7, 2010, 7:35am

Anyway,

I’ve realised that my star settings may be not precise, so I’ve made it to defaults, made inside radius to the minimum and made outside points to 6. Now it acts completely different… Subtract does erase the whole star and exclude does the same… So I have no idea how to get the right shape editable with this method…

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Frank · August 7, 2010, 7:35am

After"Subtract" go ->Object->Paths->Separate. You should have 6 cake slices then.
Hope this helps.

Cheers

Frank

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Frank · August 7, 2010, 7:40am

On 7 Aug 2010, 7:35 am, Frank wrote:

After"Subtract" go ->Object->Paths->Separate. You should have 6 cake slices then.
Hope this helps.

Drawing Spokes with the star tool goes here:
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/563/spokes.png

Cheers

Frank

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abrax · August 7, 2010, 12:09pm

Heh, nothing is that easy… When I move the second star slider right, Booleans crash my Intaglio session in Leopard…

I’ve reported a problem to Purgatory and we will see…

I’ll try later on a different machine with Tiger…

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abrax · August 7, 2010, 12:21pm

(I mean the inside points slider which is actually the third one…)

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Frank · August 7, 2010, 12:40pm

Strange, I´m on Leopard/Intel iMac with no probs here.

Cheers

Frank

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abrax · August 7, 2010, 1:27pm

I’m on Powermac’s g4 1.42 dual with Leo and the other one g4 400 running Tiger → this one also crashes…

Seems that this operation needs intel…

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Julie · August 7, 2010, 2:38pm

Okay. Here’s what I did:

Drew 6-pointed star.
Drew circle
Converted arcs to curves and saw no difference in circle but proceeded nonetheless.
Brought star forward.
Selected all.
Went Object > Paths > Subtract.

Result: star gone, leaving behind nothing but an intact circle.

Intel MBP running 10.6.4. Anyone got any ideas?

Julie

On Aug 7, 2010, at 3:35 AM, Frank wrote:

After"Subtract" go ->Object->Paths->Separate. You should have 6 cake slices then.
Hope this helps.

Cheers

Frank

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Frank · August 7, 2010, 3:14pm

Hi Julie.
I have no clue what went wrong on your side. It´s working here every time - except for more than 6 spokes due a Bollean error or what ever. But there´s an easy repair for it:
http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/3978/slices.png

Cheers

Frank

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Julie · August 7, 2010, 3:29pm

Apparently converting arcs to curves just isn’t working. Have tried this with a variety of star-points on a variety of documents, and the though the arcs-to-curves option is grayed out after I’ve selected it once, the circle remains stubbornly unaltered. Seems I must have a glitch somewhere or need to reload Intaglio.

No cheers here–

-j

On Aug 7, 2010, at 11:14 AM, Frank wrote:

Hi Julie.
I have no clue what went wrong on your side. It´s working here every time - except for more than 6 spokes due a Bollean error or what ever. But there´s an easy repair for it:
http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/3978/slices.png

Cheers

Frank

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Frank · August 7, 2010, 3:37pm

When it´s grayed out you´re not in “Object” mode. Hit “S”-key then and try again.

Cheers

Frank

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IanB · August 7, 2010, 3:44pm

Here’s an alternative method using subtracted shapes:

Draw a circle and select Object>Convert>Arcs to Curves.
Create a semi circle and crop it as shown by subtracting oblongs until a triangular ‘pie’ shape is created (A).
Duplicate the pie shape and align the 2 shapes (B).
Rotate and duplicate twice to create shape C.
Delete every other segment (D).
Add a circle in the centre (E)

Logically, there should be a way of doing this with the Arc tool, but I can’t work out how to specify the angle. This can probably be done in the Geometry palette, but what to type is a mystery

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abrax · August 7, 2010, 5:14pm

IanB:

look at 6th point in the second post… It uses arc tool at exactly 60 degr…

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Frank · August 7, 2010, 6:01pm

I think this is most precisely:
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/4586/precisesign.png

Cheers

Frank

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