Help placing "descending size" circles/ellipses along a curved path

[George-Frazee]

I'm playing around in Designer, trying to make some geometric patterns, shapes, recreate designs I see on IG as practice, etc. I was trying out an idea but I can't seem to do it simply.

Here's a simplified version of what I'm trying to do:

I was able to do this by using the data entry tool to replicate around the transformation point placed at the center of the guide circle, then manually resizing the circles. This is fine for 10 circles, but in my head I was trying to do something with a lot more and manually resizing isn't tenable.

I had initially tried to do this with the data entry tool but the issue is the scale affects the distance of the object from the transformation point much more than the size (I don't want that to change at all):

I tried every combination I could of the scale override options but that didn't change the outcome.

 

Then I tried replicating them in a line and using a warp group but that (shockingly) warped circles.

 

I also tried various experiments using a dotted line, but I can't change the pressure profile if the line is dotted, and expanding the stroke just left me were I was in the beginning, needing to manually resize the circles long the path.

This isn't a big deal, but it seems like something I should be able to do and can't seem to make happen.

[Catshill]

I wonder if you could create a line of bullets using a decreasing font size and then you could wrap them around the circle as you would do for any text?

[thomaso]

... or copy+paste the prepared objects of decreasing sizes as shape text on a round text frame as pinning objects, for instance:

[peter]

How about power duplicate?  This sounds like a simple task that has more than one answer.

 

[R C-R]

12 minutes ago, peter said:

How about power duplicate?

@George-Frazee mentioned in the first post using the data entry tool, by which believe the Move Data Entry tool (the enhanced version of Power duplicate accessed by tapping the Return key while in the Move, Shape, Picture Frame or Artboard tools), & why that does not work.

[George-Frazee]

@R C-R That's correct. Power Dupe seems to have the same behavior where any resizing is relative to the transformation point. Which I understand why that would be I was just hoping to adjust that a bit.

[George-Frazee]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

... or copy+paste the prepared objects of decreasing sizes as shape text on a round text frame as pinning objects, for instance:

[photos removed for brevity]

Oh man I think this does it! Ironically in searching for answers I did see some tutorials about pasting vector objects into text paths but I didn't realize I could highlight multiple items and have them all pasted as individual "characters" on the path.

I still think (and maybe I should request?) that the dotted lines should respond to the stroke width tool or pressure profiles, but this gets me closer. Thanks!