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So here is my very first try. I watched a tutorial and was able to do this. The house picture is from clipart from Google images. I am using a different house but still from Google images clipart. I made the circle and and did the duplicate thing then put the text in. I would like to attempt the same idea only using an oval instead. Thank you for responding so quickly as this is for a customer. I told them I am no graphic designer and that I am learning a new program so they are willing to work with me through my learning curve.
Thanks again,
David
Did you try making an art brush.
Drag your house to brushes palette, choose scatter brush. Relative to path say ok. Then drag the icon from brushes palette onto an oval path.
David,
It is a matter of sensing the right fit of houses and ellipse (or try again until it is obtained, that is iteration), and care.
You can:
1) Choose a (first attempt at a) fit of the following, starting out with any one of them:
1a) The total width of the straight stretch of ground under the house = width of the house + the distance between adjacent houses at ground level, the house centred on it;
1b) The number of houses/stretches;
1c) Size of the ellipse, determined by width and height resulting in a total circumference = path length, see Document Info;
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/user-guide.html/illustrator/using/file-information-metadata.ug.h...
Crucially, the total width of all the stretches must be a wee bit smaller than the length of the path because the latter is curved. If/once you can sense the right difference and get a sufficient accuracy, you can do the following just once.
I only had to do it once, satisfied with the accuracy, starting out with 1c) an ellipse with W = 200 and H = 100, total path length 484.4916, then settling for 24 houses/stretches with a width of 20 giving a total width of 480, a a shortening of the stretches/houses of about 1%.
Once chosen (Smart Guides being your friends telling you when you are within snapping distance), as shown in the drawings in two columns (the bottom one in the first repeated as the top one in the second):
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/user-guide.html/illustrator/using/rulers-grids-guides-crop-marks...
2) Create the ground stretch as a horizontal line and centre the house on it (I put it in red in front of the house, see top left) and Group them (Ctrl/Cmd+G;
3) Create the ellipse, and add lines between opposite Anchor Points (you can just ClickDrag between them with the Line Segment Tool, see the Drawing tool gallery part) to judge the fit;
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/user-guide.html/illustrator/using/tool-galleries.ug.html
4) Centre align the first stretch/house horizontally with the ellipse (Align panel, select both and Click the Ellipse again);
5) Deselect and ShiftClickDrag the leftmost end Anchor Point of the first stretch/house down to snap to the ellipse; now the first strecth/house is in place, acting as as the first chord of the ellipse;
6) Create a circle with W = H = twice the width of the stretch, deselect then ClickDrag it by its centre to snap to the rightmost end Anchor Point of the first stretch;
7) Deselect and Hold Alt/Option while ClickDragging (a copy of) the previous circle along the ellipse and snap to the intersection between the previous circle and the ellipse; repeat until the circle extends below the rightmost Anchor Point of the ellipse at the end of the horizontal line;
8 ) Rotate a copy of the first strectch/house by -90 degrees (holding Alt/Option) and ClickDrag it by its top end Anchor Point to snap to the centre of the last circle;
Now you can judge the fit by the vertical distance between the centre of the vertical stretch and the horizontal line, and see whether the accuracy is satisfactory, and either make adjustments between 1a) - 1c) and start over from 2) or 3) (iteration), or continue;
9) Hold Alt/Option and ShiftClickDrag the second stretch/house by the leftmost end Anchor Point horizontally along the first stretch/house to snap its rightmost end Anchor Point (you can hold Alt/Option); the second stretch/house will float above the ellipse;
10) Switch to the Rotate Tool and Click the leftmost end Anchor Point of the second stretch/house to set it as the centre of rotation, then ClickDrag the rightmost end Anchor Point down to snap to the intersection/centre of the second circle;
11) Repeat 9) and 10) for the following stretch/house sets; each stretch/house will float higher above the ellipse;
Now you have a full set of stretch/house sets covering (more than) the first quarter;
12) Hide or delete the circles and Group all the stretch/house sets;
You can also hide or delete the ellipse and the horizontal/vertical lines or leave that till later;
13) Reflect a copy of the stretch/house Group from 12) with a Vertical axis (Object>Transform>Reflect);
14) ShiftClickDrag the copy Group from 13) by the rightmost end Anchor Point to snap to the rightmost end Anchor Point of the first stretch/house, then Group the two Groups;
Now you have a full set of stretch/house sets covering (more than) the top half, with a double set in the centre;
15) Reflect a copy of the stretch/house Group from 14) with a Horizontal axis (Object>Transform>Reflect);
16) ShiftClickDrag the copy Group from 15) by the topmost/leftmost end Anchor Point to snap to the topmost end Anchor Point of the lower left stretch/house of the original Group, then Group the two Groups;
Now you have a full set of stretch/house sets all the way round as one Group, with a double set at top and bottom and at both sides, and if left in place you can compare the shape/size of the strecth/house Group with that of the ellipse;
17) Hide or delete the ellipse and the horizontal/vertical lines if not already;
18) If desired delete the unnecessary doublets at top and bottom and at both sides by deselecting and switching to the Direct Selection Tool, then holding Alt/Option and Clicking each then pressing Delete.
In a way I was just doing what I wrote about earlier, only without iteration: the stretches correspond to an irregular polygon where the sides lengths are identical all the way round.
And I just enjoyed doing it, helped and guided by Illy (her job description is Adobe Illustrator, and she is always eager to help).
I only realized how complicated it may/must seem when I had to retrace and write down the steps to make the drawings less unintelligible.
A more accurate fit would have been a stretch/house width of about 19.9 corresponding to a shortening of about 1.3%.
For comparison, an accurate shortening for a circle would be 0.3% (which I had not established before now).
Obviously, the right shortening depends on the number of houses (decreasing) and the width/height ratio of the ellipse (increasing).
I hope this is usable.
Below is a circle and a (regular) polygon with the same radius on top of each other, then a copy of the set stretched to twice the width, to show the fundamental difference mentioned earlier.
Click/Right to see in full size, Click Here to see in Chrome
By the way, the houses made round the circle using the tutorial that you showed are a bit tilted/rotated clockwise, corresponding to a serrated shape of the stretches of ground beneath them: if you follow the direction of the stretch of ground under each house, it points towards the bottom corner of the house to the right, but it points a bit higher up the wall of the house to the left.
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