Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Recommended Posts

Hi - I would like to know the best strategy for precisely dividing concentric circles and then slicing the results so I can selectively remove piece as I choose. Below is not the final image but gives an idea of what I am trying to accomplish. I am evaluating a few tools and would like to know if this tool is made to create these types of images. My end goal is to create some complex shapes like this for time tracking, make them into a PDF and then copy them to my e-ink note-taking device. 

Question 1: Is this the right tool for these types of drawings?

Question 2: If so what is the best way to get the precise circle dividers? I thought about creating a line, copying it, then using the rotate parameter, then using the align center and middle commands, then repeat a bunch of times

Question 3: Once I have my lines on top of my concentric circles how to I slice them? I have struggled with lines interacting with shapes using the subtract and combine (probably operator error)

Thank you for your guidance!

 

2019-05-03_09h12_44.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can use the Power Duplicate option and for slices use the Pie Shape Tool, you could create one shape with the marker lines grouped with a pie shape and then just duplicate it by rotating it around the centre axis.

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
B| (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum)

Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Try the cog tool, and amazing shape maker. The cogs can be formed to thin lines, and made in different depths. They can then be converted to curves, broken at the nodes, and superfluous lines deleted.

Attached, a quick and sloppy version which was started by making 1 48 toothed cog, and altering it to ones of 24, 12, & 4 teeth w. different hole radii. Duplicated, and reduced proportionately for the second ring.

DialCogs.thumb.jpg.2628b56b43d710628460212c8eae3b9a.jpg

 

 

iMac 27" Retina, c. 2015: OS X 10.11.5: 3.3 GHz I c-5: 32 Gb,  AMD Radeon R9 M290 2048 Mb

iPad 12.9" Retina, iOS 10, 512 Gb, Apple pencil

Huion WH1409 tablet

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi - edited previous post. I have solved it! The cog tool, make the lines dashed, then Layer > Expand Stroke. Then delete segments you don't need. Repeat with 48, 24, 12 spoke cogs made to look like lines.

NOTE: to preserve the dashed lines I found the following steps were required - Make Dashed > Layer > Expand Stroke > Divide. If I just did Divide first the shapes seemed like tiny filled rectangles. 

Practice makes perfect - thank you all for pointing me in the right direction! 

 

 

2019-05-04_10h13_24.png

Edited by TokyoMike
solved!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

An alternative is this: Taco Dial.afdesign Saved with history so you can jog back and forth in the history panel. 

Screen-Shot-2019-05-04-at-10-49-07.png

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
B| (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum)

Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

An alternative is this: Taco Dial.afdesign Saved with history so you can jog back and forth in the history panel. 

Screen-Shot-2019-05-04-at-10-49-07.png

Hello - WOW- in a word, WOW! I followed the history and there are a couple of things I am confused about:

1. When you copied the lines they move to precise locations around the image - how did you do that?

2. Moved Guide - what is this?

3. Transformed Focal Point - what is this?

4. Toward the end there are a few lines created and an image of the hash marks that are off the edge of the page at the right - how are these used?

Thanks so much!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, TokyoMike said:

Hello - WOW- in a word, WOW! I followed the history and there are a couple of things I am confused about:

1. When you copied the lines they move to precise locations around the image - how did you do that?

2. Moved Guide - what is this?

3. Transformed Focal Point - what is this?

4. Toward the end there are a few lines created and an image of the hash marks that are off the edge of the page at the right - how are these used?

Thanks so much!

1. When you move the rotation centre  to the centre of the circle, you can hold down shift and it will rotate in 15º increments. Using power duplicate you can duplicate an object, rotate it and then press cmd + J to duplicate and rotate the duplicated object each time 15º

2. moved guide is just moving a guide that I created because the taco isn't in the centre of the screenshot so I nudged the guides to align better. and used the point the guides intersect as the rotation centre.

3. Transformed Focal point is where I moved the rotational centre of the object to the guides intersection. This enables you to rotate objects round a focal point.
2029560055_ScreenShot2019-05-04at14_09_31.png.0e084c53218bbb95706870cfbfedc77d.png

4. The group of lines are the striped texture, I originally made a group of lines and just nested the group in the shapes with texture but later on I made a symbol out of the group of lines and replaced the groups with symbols so I could edit the symbols en masse, like change the colour or thickness of the lines.

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
B| (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum)

Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

1. When you move the rotation centre  to the centre of the circle, you can hold down shift and it will rotate in 15º increments. Using power duplicate you can duplicate an object, rotate it and then press cmd + J to duplicate and rotate the duplicated object each time 15º

There is a similar method for power duplicating & rotating an object around any rotation center by any evenly spaced rotational increment:

  1. Move the rotation center of the original object to wherever you want it to be.
  2. Duplicate the object.
  3. In the Transform panel, enter "360/n" in the "R:" field, where n can be any number & press return to rotate the duplicate.
  4. Keep pressing cmd + J to power duplicate by that increment for as many times as needed.

This is particularly useful for increments that are not evenly divisible into 360°, like 360/19 or 360/22.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After you duplicated the donut segment, you selected the original object in the Layers panel. If you instead keep the duplicate selected and rotate it, you should find that subsequent duplicates are rotated by the same amount.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Alfred said:

After you duplicated the donut segment, you selected the original object in the Layers panel. If you instead keep the duplicate selected and rotate it, you should find that subsequent duplicates are rotated by the same amount.

Cheers - thank you. I had thought I needed to do a select but it seems the duplicate is already selected after the action. I was a little confused as it puts it at the top of the layer list. All sorted out now!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, TokyoMike said:

... sometimes when I move the focal point it won't snap to the middle of my circle ...

If too many snapping options are enabled at the same time, in complex documents it can be very hard for the app to pick the one you want, so maybe experimenting with different 'snap to' settings will help with this.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tremendous progress. I'll bet it was mostly fun. 

I think that when centering the focal point, the problem may be a simple manual one. The mouse button has not been released completely, and so the point shifts slightly as one moves ones hand away.

iMac 27" Retina, c. 2015: OS X 10.11.5: 3.3 GHz I c-5: 32 Gb,  AMD Radeon R9 M290 2048 Mb

iPad 12.9" Retina, iOS 10, 512 Gb, Apple pencil

Huion WH1409 tablet

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.