How to make evenly spaced lines using the blend tool.

[inquestflash]

Hi community.

I'm trying to make a speedometer where the black lines will be even in between the magenta lines. 

I have tried with the blend tool to use the specified steps and specified distance option, but I cannot figure out how to space the black lines evenly. The magenta lines when I rotate them around to make quarters to fall exactly on the black lines, some match up some are misaligned. The only ones matching are the North, South, East, West, magenta lines to be exactly on the black lines.

Also in between the magenta line, some black lines have 14 lines, others 17 lines. 

Is there another way to achieve this with a more accurate technique? 

[SJRiegel]

Have you tried creating your tick marks with the polar grid tool?

[Mohammad.Harb]

You could try Define pattern

[inquestflash]

Hi this seems like an interesting method, I'm not aware of the define pattern at all, could you please post a tutorial or give some more information how this could be acheived?

[Jacob Bugge]

Inquestflash,

"Is there another way to achieve this with a more accurate technique?"

Certainly, and more than one, but which may be (most/more) usable/suitable will depend on exactly how many black tick marks/lines you need and the angle between them, and also where you wish to have the magenta one, in other words how many black ones for each magenta one.

And is the speedometer going full circle, or where does it end in the/each of the sides and how many black/magenta ones?

Apart from all that, one frightfully easy kind of mistake is to overlook the crucial difference in between number of distances and number of tick marks/lines (including both of the latter at the ends will be one more than the former), and correspondingly for Blends (number of steps being one less than the number of distances).

[Jacob Bugge]

inquestflash,

If we are talking replacement/improvement of an existing speedometer, it is always best to (also) have a photo of the original, whichever state it is in.

[inquestflash]

Its more for training purposes and learning more skills for accurate graphics.

This is the design I'd like to learn how to do. 

As seen the below image the white lines are evenly spaced, then they have nicely placed thick orange line, and then 4 thin orange lines to the left and right. The whole design is accurate. I'd like to know the best method for this type of accurate design.

[Anna Lander]

For me, the easiest and most controllable way is using the Rotate tool. For example, in your case, that's what you can do.

1. Draw the circle, drag the guides from the rulers, and set them crossing in the center of the circle.

2. Using the Line tool, draw the first dash. I prefer to start from the horizontal or vertical one, but you can use any angle.

3. Analyze the finally wanted image. In this case, we have 110 small gaps at 180° angle. So, each small gap is about 1,64°. Select the dash and use the Rotate tool. Click on the center point (the crossing point of guides) holding the ALT (OPT) button down. You'll get the rotation tool options window to set the rotation around the selected point. Set the amount as needed. A negative value rotates clockwise, a positive one counterclockwise.

Click COPY.

3. Using CTRL (CMD) + D create copies to have the main pattern. Set the appearance of the dashes.

5. Repeat the rotation with the pattern selected. Remember that now we have the 10*gap.

6. Add the needed items under the horizontal guide, adjust the circle, remove the unneeded circle part using the Scissors tool.

7. Done! 🙂

[Jacob Bugge]

inquestflash,

This is a special case where the speedometer has an appearance of accuracy and certainly regularity, but has an inbuilt inaccuracy in terms of actual speed for the values shown with the thin orange lines; however, this inaccuracy is neglectable and will never matter.

This appearance is obtained by the following (the thick white lines actually failing to point exactly towards the centre):

The thick white lines are evenly distributed round a part of the circle; and so are the thick orange lines, ecactly midway between the white ones. The thick whites lines at 20 and 240 are opposite, and the angle between adjacent white lines (and between the thick orange ones) is 360/22 degrees (Illy can work with the quotient 360/22, otherwise you can use the approximation 16.3636), so the full span between the centres of the lines at 0 and 260 is 13*360/22 = 4680/22 degrees (~ 212.7272), or 360/22 ~ 16.3636 degrees below horizontal.

To get a full regularity in appearance, each set of 4 thin orange lines are evenly distributed between the edges of the thick lines, NOT between the centres, and therefore they are not part of a true subdivision of the angles. Further, because the thick white lines are thicker than the thick orange lines, the sets of 4 thin lines are closer to the centre of the thick orange line than to the centre of the white line. Finally, to get the fully even distribution, the thickness of the thin orange lines must also be included.

All in all for full regularity in appearance, the distance in between two thin lines equals 1/10 of the distance between the centres of the white lines, minus the combined thickness of 1 thick white line + 1 thick orange line + 8 thin white lines, expressed as a distance along a line or the corresponding angle.

[Jacob Bugge]

inquestflash,

If you a ready for a straightforward(ly insane) way, the following is an accurate recreation of the regularity in appearance mentioned above, in the form of an Art Brush, here just a short section shown at the top for comparison with the appearance of the speedometer image. It is based on the set of vertical stroked paths shown further down towards the middle.

It was quite straightforward to see how and just do it, much simpler than describing it afterwards.

The following relative proportions have been used, based on a visual interpretation of the speedometer image (including the customized angle span as usually encountered in speedometers  and dials), with the Stroke Weight of the thick central orange tick mark as the basic unit:

Thick white marks (at 120 and 140):

Stroke Weight 2, Length 8

Thick central orange mark (at 130 without number):

Stroke Weight 1, Length 4

Thin orange marks (corresponding to even numbers in between, four on either side of the thick central orange mark):

Stroke Weight 0.375 (3/8), Length 4

Distance/empty (black) space in between tick marks: 1

All the tick marks of the whole speedometer can be made as follows, working on a black background, and with the top centre Reference Point ticked in the Transform panel (Smart Guides being your friends):

1) Create the central tick mark;

2) Move a copy of 1) horizontally somewhat to the right, double the H value in the Transform panel, double the Stroke Weight, and change the Stroke Color to white,

3) Move a copy of 2) horizontally somewhat to the left side of 1);

4) Move a copy of 1) horizontally a little to the right and reduce the Stroke Weight to 0.375;

5) Move a copy of 4) a little to the right and repeat the move twice to have the first set of four;

6) Move a copy of 5) horizontally to the left of side of 1);

7) In the General Preferences tick Use Preview Bounds;

8) Select all paths and click 1) again, then in the Align panel use Distribute Spacing>Horizontal Distribue Space after setting the Space to 1;

9) In the General Preferences untick Use Preview Bounds (or regret your omission of this);

10) Group all the stroked paths;

Now you have the set shown in the middle; it has a total width of 16 (centre to centre of the white tick marks) and a total height of 8;

11) Move a copy of 10) horizontally to the left by the total width = 16 and repeat 11 times;

12) Select everything and create a new Art Brush with default settings;

13) Create a circle with H = D = 22*16/PI and a Stroke Weight of 1, copy it, and lock and hide the original (this full circle holds the centre to be used for everything else later);

14) Click with the Line Tool on the Workspace and insert a Length that is more than half the H = D in 13 and the angle 360/22 degrees, then ClickDrag the Line by it uppermost end to snap to the centre of the circle from 14, then reflect a copy of the Line and snap tis uppermost end in the same way, then cut the circle at the two intersections and delete the bottom part;

15) Apply the Art Brush to the partial circle from 14).

Obviously, the circle corresponds to the middle of the thick white tick marks, and to the inner ends of the other tick marks.

Everything can be scaled to whichever sizes are required, remember to have Scale Strokes and Effects ticked.

For the single set shown at the top of the speedometer, a short Art Brush was made from the single set in 10) thus skipping 11), and the circle was cut to only the top 360/22 degrees corresponding to 13) - 15), and the Art Brush was applied to that.

Further, the single set and the speedometer image were scaled and positioned to enable the comparison.

Click/RightClick to get closer (and Click to get closer still), or Click Here to see in Chrome inquestflash,

[Kurt Gold]

Jacob,

whenever there is a question about speedometers, you are in full cry.

Did you produce speedometers in your earlier life?

[Jacob Bugge]

Never, Kurt, and I know nothing about their inner workings, only that they seem to exaggerate the speed of road vehicles, probably to boost performance impression, and to avoid lawsuits in connexion with speeding so almost everyone keeps below the speed limit, until whoever tries to overtake and can be trapped in the outer/opposite lane.

But every new case is different, and they all need to be made in the right way to work in real life, so it is always stronger than I.