Making arcs

[Slotcar Bob]

I need to make arcs. Exact ones. I will need to join them at the ends. Fill will have different color depending on the "section". I have attached an example. The straights are easy, but I have found no way to make the curves, as I did in Illustrator. 

Also, setting the scale to inches is necessary, when I draw the arcs. 

Thanks to all.

[firstdefence]

Use the donut tool for the corners, you can scale the width of the donut fill and the arc, making accurate track pieces. You can make all of the pieces to actual size and arc and save them as assets for reuse, the only thing missing to make accurate pieces is the track width which is probably going to be between 4-6 inches. The slots in each track piece can either be two circles with black strokes nested in the tracks or a donut with a stroke and no fill slightly over arc'd to hide the black ends, I'd go with the former so you don't have to mess around with the over arc'ing.

[GarryP]

I’ve attached a simple example – document and image – of what’s possible with Donuts (as advised by firstdefence above) when done quickly (a few minutes work).
A bit more care and attention doing something similar will probably get you what you need.

curved-tracks-example.afdesign

[firstdefence]

Nice one Garry, reminds me of my scalextric days, my Dad bought me a scalextric set with the old Lotus 25 style cars, I was 1yr old at the time 

Any hoo, I've made a to scale doc with a piece made to actual size'ish

Track Map.afdesign Saved with history so you can jog back and forth in the history panel.  

Oh and an Assets file with that piece in as an example of repeated use, literally just drag and drop.

Track Parts.afassets

[Slotcar Bob]

firstdefence, I cannot open these files. I am on a Mac. 

8 hours ago, firstdefence said:

Use the donut tool for the corners, you can scale the width of the donut fill and the arc, making accurate track pieces. You can make all of the pieces to actual size and arc and save them as assets for reuse, the only thing missing to make accurate pieces is the track width which is probably going to be between 4-6 inches. The slots in each track piece can either be two circles with black strokes nested in the tracks or a donut with a stroke and no fill slightly over arc'd to hide the black ends, I'd go with the former so you don't have to mess around with the over arc'ing.

 

[Slotcar Bob]

GarryP, thank you!

OK, I got the general idea. That's pretty cool. I will make a library of the parts to reuse. What I can't figure out is how to determine the inches. I see that when you start dragging, the dimensions show. But for accuracy, I need to actually type the number. Is there a way to do that?

Thank you all.

[firstdefence]

I'm on Mac too, High Sierra 10.13.6, the asset file you can add by dragging into Affinity Designers window.

Pie/Donut context menu for reference.

The outer radius of the donut you can input via the Transform Panel, so for the track piece I created 12in Radius 1/8 circle you would drag out a 2ft (24in) donut, the trickier part is getting the width of the track by increasing the hole radius.

If the track is actually 3" wide we would need to subtract 3in from 12in to get the radius of the hole radius which would be 9in unfortunately you cannot just input 9in into the Hole radius section of the donut tools context menu, so a bit of math to find the percentage is needed.

9 divided by 12 = 0.75 times 100 = 75 we now know the Hole radius needs to be 75% to get a 3in width track.

The angle of the track i.e 1/8 is simple to do 360/8 = 45 so you can now use the donut tools context menu to type in 45 in to the total angle input. You can also adjust the start angle and end angle to position the arc section where you want around the total circle.

 

 

 

[Slotcar Bob]

OK, that's not what I had hoped for. I can do the other math. I just wanted to type a OD radius number to get it exact. It's very hard to nail it by dragging. But, on my way.

Thanks.

[Slotcar Bob]

13 hours ago, firstdefence said:

Nice one Garry, reminds me of my scalextric days, my Dad bought me a scalextric set with the old Lotus 25 style cars, I was 1yr old at the time 

Any hoo, I've made a to scale doc with a piece made to actual size'ish

Track Map.afdesign Saved with history so you can jog back and forth in the history panel.  

Oh and an Assets file with that piece in as an example of repeated use, literally just drag and drop.

Track Parts.afassets

The asset file does not open. I event changed the extension to "afdesign". If you have the time, please resend, or tell me how to open it. Perhaps "import"? Thanks.

[firstdefence]

9 hours ago, Slotcar Bob said:

OK, that's not what I had hoped for. I can do the other math. I just wanted to type a OD radius number to get it exact. It's very hard to nail it by dragging. But, on my way.

Thanks.

You can initially create a donut shape and input the diameter using the transform panel.
 

I'll make a video later today unless someone rattles one off before I get back home. 

[GarryP]

To import Assets, open the Assets Studio – menu “View → Studio → Assets” – and then click on the little ‘hamburger menu icon’ at the top-right of that studio and choose “Import Assets...” from the menu. You don’t need to – and shouldn’t – rename the file.

[R C-R]

I am curious about the scale of the slot car track shown in the 1st post. In my youth, I had a fairly extensive Aurora brand 'HO' (actually the English 'OO' scale) setup & I was constantly experimenting with new layouts so this topic was a real 'blast from the past' for me. 

[Slotcar Bob]

The scale is HO. The site to look at the cars and tracks is HERE. I have been slot racing since 1960. 

The black plastic track is the one that got me started in The Fray in 1987. 

The gray track is my current one. Computer operated, CNC plastic. Tables are 14 x 6. Track is over 60 feet long. 

 

 

[Slotcar Bob]

5 hours ago, GarryP said:

 

Movie please. I am getting more confused by the minute. I hate Adobe for not making CS6 all 64 bit, but screw them for their subscription nonsense. I am going to make Affinity work. I hope things will smooth out as they go. I do appreciate what they have done so far. 

[R C-R]

41 minutes ago, Slotcar Bob said:

I have been slot racing since 1960. 

The black plastic track is the one that got me started in The Fray in 1987. 

I am not sure of the year I started with the Aurora stuff but it must have been prior to 1963 because my first cars used the wretched 'vibrator' motors -- basically a buzzer with a plastic flap on the end that ratcheted against a gear attached directly to the rear axel. All my track sections were the original Aurora black plastic ones with white lane markings. I upgraded to the 'pancake' motors as soon as they became available but not long after that local interest had moved on to much higher performance 1/24th scale racing on high voltage tracks so I sold all my stuff. 

Anyway, regarding adding .afassets files, you can click on the four line 'burger' menu on the corner of the Assets panel (which you may need to open using the View > Studio > Assets menu item) & then choose "Import Assets..." from the menu choices that pop up:

[firstdefence]

Actually, there is another saving option on the Donut/Pie tool Context bar.

This is after I created a Category and added a preset.

The difference between this and assets is assets hold more info like nested objects, the above option is a quick preset option for shapes.

[Slotcar Bob]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

I am not sure of the year I started with the Aurora stuff but it must have been prior to 1963 because my first cars used the wretched 'vibrator' motors -- basically a buzzer with a plastic flap on the end that ratcheted against a gear attached directly to the rear axel. All my track sections were the original Aurora black plastic ones with white lane markings. I upgraded to the 'pancake' motors as soon as they became available but not long after that local interest had moved on to much higher performance 1/24th scale racing on high voltage tracks so I sold all my stuff. 

Anyway, regarding adding .afassets files, you can click on the four line 'burger' menu on the corner of the Assets panel (which you may need to open using the View > Studio > Assets menu item) & then choose "Import Assets..." from the menu choices that pop up:

Yes, first set was a 4-lane Vibrator car. 1960-1963. Then the Thunderjets, which we use now. 

[Slotcar Bob]

OK!! Things are moving forward (If I remember it. LOL). I opened the asset from firstdefence. It replaced the "iOS" default one with "Track".. I drag the piece to the artboard, and it placed. Last questions. How do I switch between "Assets"? How do I add an asset?

You guys are great! Thanks.

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, Slotcar Bob said:

How do I switch between "Assets"? How do I add an asset?

To switch among Asset categories, click on the current category name (like "iOS 10 or Track). It is a popup menu. To add an asset to a subcategory, select something in the workspace window, then click on the small 'burger' menu next to the subcategory name & choose "Add from Selection."

See the built-in or online help topics Assets Panel & Using Assets for more info about assets.

[Slotcar Bob]

I tried "Add from selection". Doesn't go in the "Track" Asset category...

 

...and then, as I wrote this, I went back and removed the asset that firstdefense gave me, and it started working. OK! I think I got this. Been an interesting thread, folks. I am on the way.

[R C-R]

6 minutes ago, Slotcar Bob said:

I tried "Add from selection". Doesn't go in the "Track" Asset category...

It should work. What did you have selected on the Layers panel when you tried that?

[Slotcar Bob]

I'm not certain, though I think the selection determines the layer. As soon as I deleted the imported one, things worked correctly. Glitch? Who knows.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Slotcar Bob said:

I'm not certain, though I think the selection determines the layer.

The way it should work is whatever is selected in the Layers panel is added to the subcategory (not the category) when "Add from selection" is clicked in the popup 'burger' menu of a subcategory. Are you sure you did not confuse categories with subcategories?

2 hours ago, Slotcar Bob said:

Glitch? Who knows.

If you tried adding to a subcategory as above then I guess so, because I had no problems adding anything to its single subcategory after importing the assets file made by @firstdefence.

Regarding slot car assets in general, I have been playing around creating my own version of that, based on the Aurora plastic track sections. One thing I am having problems finding is accurate track section dimensions. I am fairly sure they are all 3" wide, & the straight section lengths are obvious, but I have not been able to find anything about how far the slots are spaced from the edges or each other, or if the radii of the curve sections are referenced to the inner or outer edge, or to the centerline of the curve sections.

Instead of basing the curve track sections on donuts, my plan is to place a pair of straight sections at what would be the the ends of a 90° turn & use them as a reference to draw the curve track sections constructed from cut apart circles. I'm just not sure where to place the straight sections because if I don't know the radius reference point:

[Slotcar Bob]

OK, this is opinion.

1. Doesn't matter where the lanes are, if one is going to design and then build that track. I will say that Aurora and Tyco had the grooves closer to center, while Atlas had them at equal distance. Not sure of exact spacing. The black manuactured tracks are all 3" wide. The radii are 6, 9, 12, & 15, so they "nest", making 8 lanes possible. There was a Tomy "hairpin" that gave a 3" turn, so theoretically, 10 lanes was possible.

2. The radius is determined by the outer edge, as you know.

3. The "donuts" we can make in AD can be clicked on to change the shape. Only one of each radius is needed. The 1/4 or 1/8 circle can be done by clicking and dragging on the red dots. 

4. Now that we use CNC to make tracks, the idea of set curves is antiquated. We can make any curve, in any amount, with any length. The issue is table size, and track width. The current standard for Fray In Ferndale (Fray racing) is 1 foot wide, for 6 lanes), with wide aprons of about an inch (Some eliminate the inside apron to have more room available), and equal spacing between lanes.

I have something else I would like to try. That is to get the gears of the cars reproduced by 3D printing. Four of them are flat. The AD gear tool seems inefficient to do it. If there is any interest here, contact me (Here, but privately if it can be done). The local library offers free 3D printing, and I would like to try it. I have the gear dimensions, and tooth count. I have an app called "Gear Maker" but I can't figure out how to use it. I use a Mac, if that matters.

[firstdefence]

I think you have it mixed up RCR, see image below.

The smaller track curve is still 45% and 3inch width and is based on the blue donut using the 6 inch outer radius.