I have a specific problem. I’m designing watch dials. I want 60 lines radiating from the center of a circle I have drawn at 6 degree intervals. That gives 60 minute marks around the circumference of the dial.
There is supposed to be a Tutorial on using the rotate key and repeat key functions together to achieve something like this, but I can’t find it. This is dead simple in Illustrator. I’ve tried a wide series of guesses but can’t do it.
Does anyone know where the Tutorial on doing this can be found or have other suggestions on how to achieve this effect.
Last place I would have thought to look😁Thanks very much for the information. I’ll try to take a look at it very soon. If I’m still confused, I’ll get back to you. I’m very impressed by the tutorials and online instruction Vectornator offers . In fact I can’t think of a single other program that offers the depth of information Vectornator .
Hello Helen,
I’m not sure you understood what I meant. Here is a jpeg (originally made as svg) showing exactly what I want to do.The center of rotation is moved to the center of the circle. A line is drawn, selected and then repeated at 6 degree intervals 60 times to lay out the minute marks on a watch dial. This can be done in several type of svg software, but despite my efforts, it appears impossible in Vectanator. Making Copy and Repeat work together to repeatedly lay out the same line while specifying the exact degree of copying does not work in Vectanator, as far as I can see. Please let me know if I am wrong about this and that this type of layout can be done in Vectanator.
I have to apologize, but the video is so small it was hard to see how you did it. In fact, I could not see it at all.
1)how did you set the point of rotation?
2)how did you set the degrees of rotation?
3)what order (if any) did you set repeat and duplication.
4)Were both the circle and the line selected, or just the line?
I feel like the dullest student in the class, but this is so important for me, I hope you will bear with me, and explain what you tried to show me in the video.
I managed to enlarge the video a bit and I can see that you did not accomplish what I asked. Excuse me if this sounds harsh, as this is not my intention. I am trying to learn. What you have done is turned a line going entirely through the circle 30 times at 6 degrees, not turning a line centered at the middle of a circle 6o times at 6 degrees each. These are two rather different things. As I am constantly dealing with a wide variety of angles, depending on the design, I would like to know how to accomplish this with the the center of rotation at the center of the circle.For example, imagine you have a circular pie that you had to dive into five equal pieces. These would be 72 degrees per section . This would not be possible with a line whose center of rotation was in the middle of the line, only with one whose center of rotation was at the end of the line. How would this be set up
Please excuse what may seem like a pedantic and hairsplitting discussion, but there are things I have to do every day when designing a dial.
Apologies for misunderstanding your request. I’ve put together an additional video showing how one would go about placing a line through half of a circle shape → adjusting the point of rotation to the centre of the circle → using the repeat and duplicate tool to place more lines of equal distance to populate the rest of the circle. While rotating the first line, you will see the degree of rotation within the co-ordinates section of the Style Tab or alternatively, this figure can be set manually from the same section.
I hope this sheds more light on the situation but if I still have not quite answered your question, just let me know and we can take a further look.
Hi Helen,
Thank you for taking so much time and trouble to tutor me in this. I really hope to use Vectanator solely for all my drawing work and not have to switch between two or three programs. I really appreciate your help, and I can say that Vectanator support may well be the most impressive of any program I’ve ever used.
I’ll give this a try. I think this is the solution to my problem.
I have found this thread very useful, many thanks. I have a further question. I am able to replicate the behaviour in the video if I manually pull the line (using the altered rotation point, at the end of the line) to its new position around the circle. However, if I try to set the exact degree of rotation in the ‘style’ tab (as suggested in ‘this figure can be set manually from the same section’), the rotation then takes place from the original rotation point in the middle of the line (even though the new rotation point appears to remain in position). This makes it very hard to divide the circle into precisely equal pieces, as I have to make an approximate guess as to which degree of rotation I need to pull the first line to. I hope this makes sense! I’m using the IPad + Pencil.
I’m in complete agreement with Asrial. I have exactly the same difficulty with the rotation tool of Vectanator using iPad+Pencil. As a result I have pretty much give up on Vectanator, and do almost all my work on a vector program called “Graphic” which has a exceptionally clear and easy to use rotation function, though it is a less capable program overall than Vectornator is. In fact, having used several different vector drawing programs, I think I can honestly say that Vectanator has the weakest and least capable rotation tool of any of the several vector drawing software I have used. It needs to be improved: 1) rotation should be operated by pushing a buttton multiple times, not by having to move a stylus or finger. 2) setting degrees is very difficult in Vectanator. One should be able to set degrees in a panel always visible in the tool bar; the degree of rotation should be set by using buttons, not struggling with the current systems. There should also be a ay to set partial degrees easily too, for example 15.25 degrees.3) The degree setting window should always be visible in the tool bar to make selection of degrees easier. I have the feeling that the designers of Vectornator did not realize how necessary a clear , and easy to use rotation and degree function is to many designers. Frankly speaking, it looks like it was added as an afterthought.
This is a serious deficiency in an otherwise outstanding program. When rotating an object we shouldn’t have to move it with our fingers because of the chance of inaccuracy.If we have to move it 6 degrees and move it 7 degrees, it will ruin the final product.
Let’s get some buttons and a good rotating protocol for Vectornator!
