I need to recreate this dial and I've learned how to create evenly spaced tick marks within a circle, but this is an ellipse. Here, I attempted to draw two ellipse then used the scissors to cut them to size. Then I used the line tool and drew each of the tick marks. Then I adjusted the weights of each tick. This is not a good method because the end ticks are not meeting the ends of the ellipse perfectly, leaving a tiny bit of tick mark outside the ellipse. There must be a better way to do this. Here is what I ended up with:
But this is what I need to create:
(I only need to create the arched part with tick marks of this dial)
Any help is appreciated, but please note that I am familiar with only the very basics of illustrator, I simply don't do this type of work often enough to completely understand the software.
Thanks!!!!
1 Correct answer
Jber,
If you wish to have the tick marks follow an ellipse and at the same time have constant widths (two different widths), you may:
0) Lock the image of the dial;
1) Create the thickest tick mark and move a copy to the right, then create a one step blend;
2) Create the thinnest tick mark and move a copy to the right, then create a five steps blend;
3) Create the two ellipses corresponding to the two arcs, then create a one step blend and Object>Blend>Expand to get a midway ellipse;
4) With the midwa
...
Explore related tutorials & articles
25
Replies
I would draw this straight, then use
Object >> Envelope Distort >> Warp
You are welcome, Jber. I should mention that the dial photo shows a total of four thick tick marks, in which case you should make a two step blend in 1).
I believe Mike meant that you can create the straight version in whichever way you want, then Arc it (hopefully not Argh it).
To correct what I said before, this may tick marks with thicknesses that grow upwards, corresponding to the difference in the lengths of the curved top and bottom.
One way that results in constant thickness tick marks might be to (using Stroke>Round Cap/Join or Stroke>Projecting Cap/Miter Join or Stroke>Butt Cap and Miter Join depending on the desired end shape and length, see below):
1) Apply the Rectangular Grid Tool with the desired width and height and with 0 Horizontal Dividers and 5 Vertical Dividers;
2) Direct Select the tick marks to be thick and Ctrl/Cmd+C+F+X+C to create independent paths in front, then increase their Stroke Weight as desired, then if you want to have them extend past the grid at the top as in the photo (instead of both at the top and the bottom) use Round or Projecting Cap and move them up by half the difference in Stroke Weight (if they are 2pt and the grid is 1pt move them up by 0.5 pt), and if you want to have them fit the height of the grid use Round or Projecting Cap and decrease their length by the difference in Stroke Weight or use Butt Cap and increase their length by the difference in Stroke Weight;
decrease their length;
3) Group the grid and the thick tick marks;
4) Effect>Warp>Arc.
Jber,
... the entire retangle is selected (not all the ticks, just the outer rectangle) ...
This is an attempt to make sure everything is included in the crucial step 2), as an amendment of post #7 (I will amend post #4 as well, hopefully before you need it):
One way that results in constant thickness tick marks might be to (using Stroke>Round Cap/Join or Stroke>Projecting Cap/Miter Join or Stroke>Butt Cap and Miter Join depending on the desired end shape and length, see below), with the layer expanded in the Layers palette (and Smart Guides may be your friends, telling you when you when you are in the right spots):
1) Apply the Rectangular Grid Tool with the desired width and height and with 0 Horizontal Dividers and 5 Vertical Dividers;
2) Switch to the Direct Selection Tool and click an empty spot (away from the grid), then
2a) Click on the leftmost segment (somewhere in the middle away from the end Anchor Points) to select the first tick marks to be thick, then
2b) Hold Shift and click on the other segments to select the rest of the tick marks to be thick, then
2c) With all those segments selected click Ctrl/Cmd+C+F+X+C to create independent paths in front (you should be able to see them appear at the top in the Layers palette), then
2d) Increase their Stroke Weight as desired, then if you want to have them extend past the grid at the top as in the photo (instead of both at the top and the bottom) use Round or Projecting Cap and move them up by half the difference in Stroke Weight (if they are 2pt and the grid is 1pt move them up by 0.5 pt), and if you want to have them fit the height of the grid use Round or Projecting Cap and decrease their length by the difference in Stroke Weight or use Butt Cap and increase their length by the difference in Stroke Weight;
3) Group the grid and the thick tick marks;
4) Effect>Warp>Arc.
Hi Jacob;
Question. I got to step 3 where you said to create the two ellipses, then create a one step blend and object>Blend>Expand to get a midway ellipse;
the "expand" option under object>blend is greyed out, I'm not able to select it. Did I miss a step? This is what I got so far:
the first two lines are my two step blend for the large ticks and the 2nd two lines are my thinner ticks with the two ellipses below that.
Thanks.
Hi Jacob;
First let me say thanks for your patience. I feel very embarressed to have to ask for explanation on what probably seems so apparent to yourself, but...here goes.
I got to step 3 and where you said create the ellipses then object>blend>expand to get a midway ellipses. The option to "expand" was not there, I figured out that I first needed to: object>blend>make in order to get the "expand" option to show up. then I was able to move forward and create the anchor points as instructed in step 4. But in step 5 I got stopped again at your instruction object>blend>replace spine... the "replace spine" option is not available. I do have the midway ellipse selected. This is what I have:
The ellipse on the bottom is the copy that I made. Im sure that I'm missing a step in order to get "replace spine" to show up, but I don't know what.
Thanks for helping a newbie out.
Jber,
And this is an attempt to give a (hopefully sufficiently) more complete description of the ellipse way, as an amendment of post #4 (overdoing silly things like this makes it difficult to remember to mention all the crucial steps that seem to hide somewhere in the fingers):
One way that results in constant thickness tick marks might be to (using Stroke>Round Cap/Join or Stroke>Projecting Cap/Miter Join or Stroke>Butt Cap and Miter Join depending on the desired end shape and length, see below, with the layer expanded in the Layers palette, and Smart Guides are your friends, telling you when you when you are in the right spots):
If you wish to have the tick marks follow an ellipse and at the same time have constant widths (two different widths), you may (see below):
0) Lock the image of the dial (shown as a grey area below), you may place it at X = 0 to facilitate symmetric building;
1) Create the thickest tick mark and move a copy to the right, then create a one step blend (Object>Blend Options>Specified Steps = 1, then Object>Blend>Make);
2) Create the thinnest tick mark and move a copy to the right, then create a five steps blend (Object>Blend Options>Specified Steps = 5, then Object>Blend>Make);
3) Either of two ways (in both cases make sure to make it as symmetrical as possible):
3a) Create the midway ellipse, adjusting the top of it to be midway between the two arcs (this is the first way I thought of and the way shown below), or
3b) Create two ellipses corresponding to the two arcs, then create a one step blend and Object>Blend>Expand to get the midway ellipse and delete the other two;
4) Drag horizontally with the Line Tool (hold Shift) to make a path between the two spots where the midway ellipse crosses the ends of the dial image (Smarts Guides say intersect), or just create a horizontal path and place it so it crosses the ellipse in the right spots (you can see the symmetry here);
5) With the horizontal path still selected Object>Path>Divide Objects Below;
6) Delete the lower superfluous part of the ellipse, then with the Direct Seletion Tool click the horizontal segment and delete it (only click delete once);
7) Select the remaining midway ellipse part and Object>Path>Offset Path, using half the height of the dial image (at the middle), you may retry until you have it right, this will recreate the top and bottom of the dial and also make ends;
8) Select the midway ellipse part and Object>Path>Add Anchor Points a few times (see below), and copy the midway ellipse, now you have two on top of each other, one for each of the blends;
9) Select one of the midway ellipses along with the thin blend from 2) (hold Shift to have them both selected) and Object>Blend>Replace Spine, this will make that ellipse part disappear;
10) Select the other midway ellipse and the thick blend from 1) (hold Shift to have them both selected) and Object>Blend>Replace Spine;
11) Hide/Delete the image dial.
Now you should have the whole dial with both sets of tick marks on top of the elliptic arch set. In 9) and 10) you may select on the Artboard or through the Layers palette (you can see what you are selecting in both places), and the order (and stacking order) in 1)/2) and 9)/10) can be changed.
If you wish to move/extend the thick tick marks upwards or both up and down, you may:
12) Select the thick ticks blend and Object>Blend>Expand, and then Select each of the thick tick marks and tick the appropriate Reference Point in the Transform palette (if you want to extend upwards use the bottom ones (Right for left, Center for centre, Left for right), if you want to extend both up and down use the Center one), then multiply the H value by the desired amount and click Ctrl/Cmd+Enter to make them a bit longer up/outwardly.
The Object>Path>Add Anchor Points in 8) is to get a even distribution of the thin tick mark blend (not necessary for the thick tick marks blend because it only has one step).
AdChoices