Hello guys, it's been quite some time since I've been stumped and needed to resort to the best resource on the net... You Guys! lol anyway, here is an image of what I need to create and I've been trying to do this using line segment or pen, but my problem with line segment is the blunt ends and the pen does not allow me to change the stroke width to reflect the wider lines.  I'm still a newbie and probably always will be, so easy to understand instructions are as always, greatly appreciated. The "Dial" is actually this wierd rectangle shape with the odd dip at the top, but all I need is the black artwork inside the dial.  You can see that the side lines are a different width then the top and the sides slant inward a bit.  What would be the easiest way to re-create this and keep the stroke width correct? Thanks guys! ... View more

Hello again; I'm sure that this is probably old hat to you guys, but I have no idea how to create the arch part of the dials, at least I think it would be an arch.  With the top photo, the "arch" has 2 colors so I would need to have 2 layers, one holding one color and one holding the other color, but as I said I have no idea how to make them and I had no success with the "arc" tool. In the second photo, it's very difficult to tell, but the left side of the arch is green and the right is a pale yellow so again, I think I would need two archs.  The second photo also these tick marks that are at the top of the arch and again, I have no idea how to recreate them. I'm hoping someone that knows how to make these wouldn't mind putting together a step by step tutorial for me since I'm still a novice with Illustrator.  Thanks!!! ... View more

I'm using Illustrator CS5 - I've been trying to figure out a way to slant the ends of the lines all at once, or to create them to begin with.  I've searched for a method to do this until my eyes gave out (including youtube how to's).  What I've been doing is creating the lines, drawing guides, expanding the lines, then dragging each endcap anchor point to intersect with the guide and this is taking a bit longer than I would like.  Is there a quicker way to get the lines in the top image to look like those in the bottom image? specifically the slant on the endcaps? ... View more

I now need to recreate the hash marks for this 1934 Ford Radio Dial.  My problem is the gap between each and every single hash mark being different.  I don't know how to make the usual method of drawing circles and creating one main hash mark then transform/copy to get all the hash marks.  How can I digitally recreate this so that the hash lines are exactly as shown?  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. (this dial is 2 3/16 diameter) ... View more

Hello Again, Thanks to so much help that I received here, I've been able to move right along in learning how to perform my job digitally instead of with an old camera.  In my last discussion, I learned out to make the tick marks using copies and rotation.  My question now is, how is the rotation calculated so A) I get the correct placement of the tick marks, especially the small ones as there are so many and B) how do I calculate the rotation degree so that I have the proper amount of space at the bottom of the guage/dial? Here is an image to help show what I'm asking: I know how to get the large tick marks and the small tick marks, if I were placing them evenly around the entire circle, I would know how to do that also - but since I'm placing them around only a portion of the circle (although still evenly) I'm lost.  I can only figure out the space by hit and miss calculations and that is taking much too long.  I would also need to know how much to rotate the entire thing by in order to get the open space at the bottom as shown. thanks for your help! ... View more