Create Face Plates

Using Inkscape to create faceplates Note – this is not a guide by an expert ! Just some notes by a novice so I won’t forget next time ! Set paper size, orientation, units, grid, snapping in File > Document Properties

Grid and guide snapping settings need to be tweaked from time to time depending on what you’re trying to do. Basic navigation, selection and grouping of objects, drawing and setting thickness (fill/stroke) of boxes ie faceplate outline, circles, and text is pretty self explanatory, see online tutorials and manual http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/index.php You can use guides (drag from top and side) to accurately position ie snap to guide for centre of pot holes, bottom row of text. Zoom in/out using + and – is handy, as are numerous keyboard shortcuts.

Note that you can set the position, height and width of the selected object in inches (or mm) by typing in the values in the X, Y, W, H boxes. Current cursor position and zoom ratio shown at bottom RH corner

Object > Align and Distribute is cool for aligning text underneath a pot with the centreline of the pot. Select both objects (ie click and drag a box around them), then

To align horizontally and vertically

t Dial faces To create a dial face, where the marks change with angle ie

1st draw one mark

then surround with a box (shown dashed for clarity, can have stroke opacity = 0 ie no outline so you don’t need to delete later). Size the box to suit diameter of knob being used ie box width = outer diameter of marks).

Select these objects together then Object > Transform > Rotate 60 deg

Select the 2 objects, then Object > Group, then Edit > Clone > Create Tiled Clone Symmetry P1, rows 1 x 11 columns,

rotation 0 deg per row, 30 deg per column then Create and you should get the above result. For the Tap effect (see below), 12 rows and 27.27 deg per column. To create a dial face, where the marks don’t change with angle ie the trusty “Tap” dial

Create the 1st number of your dial 0 Create/copy the hole for the pot, and overlay the number and center it by using : Select (click /drag) both number and pot hole objects Object > Align and Distribute, then click center on vertical axis and center on horizontal axis

Select the number again by : Select the combined object, then Object > Ungroup, then click on the number. If it’s not highlighted, then Object > Lower to bottom and try again until the number is highlighted. If you want to repeat the same object around the dial (ie probably not a number), use Edit > Clone > Create Clone (Alt D). Then if you want to change this object, you change the master and all clones automatically change. If you want unique numbers, right click your selected number and copy. Select copy of number, number and hole then use Align and Distribute to centre. Select the number and position by : Object > Transform

The numbers above are for 1.5” diameter dial, 1st no. at 240 deg (ie for a 300 deg rotation pot). The move factors are calculated by : Horizontal = diameter/2 x cos (required angle) Vertical = diameter/2 x sin (required angle)

For the other numbers, right click the center number and repeat the 1st step ie copy and Transform, except change the horizontal and vertical move values. Table A at the end of the document has move coordinates for 10, 11 and 12 position dials using a 1” radius. Or you can just scale the existing dials in the symbols file. When done, delete the number at the centre, and edit the text for each number.

To combine the two dials (ie marks and numbers), If you made them the same size, scale the dial with marks to fit inside the numbers. If you used Clone, make sure both are unlinked (Select whole dial then Edit > Clone > Unlink), and check each dial is 1 group (ie select all objects, then Object > Group). If you have’nt already, group each dial with a pot hole, then use Align and Distribute to line up their centres. Then select both dials (with central holes), and use Align and distribute to center. You will note that there is an offset, as one of the dials is asymmetric. Manually zoom in and align the centre crosses of the holes. If each dial is not a single group, numbers & marks will collapse into the centre when you align.

No doubt there’s loads of other ways to do all of the above & probably more efficient, so have a crack at it. Plenty of svg graphics files which could be handy for logos etc at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ Category:SVG http://openclipart.org/media/downloads

Table 1 Coordinates for dial number positions radius

1

for 10 divisions (0 to 10) in 300 deg =300/10 angle (deg) angle (rad) x coord y coord ie 30 deg per division 0 0.00 1.000 0.000 30 0.52 0.866 0.500 60 1.05 0.500 0.866 90 1.57 0.000 1.000 120 2.09 -0.500 0.866 150 2.62 -0.866 0.500 180 3.14 -1.000 0.000 210 3.67 -0.866 -0.500 240 4.19 -0.500 -0.866 300 330

5.24 5.76

0.500 0.866

-0.866 -0.500

21.82 49.09 76.36 103.64 130.91 158.18 185.45 212.73 240.00 300.00 327.27 354.55

0.38 0.86 1.33 1.81 2.28 2.76 3.24 3.71 4.19 5.24 5.71 6.19

0.928 0.655 0.236 -0.236 -0.655 -0.928 -0.995 -0.841 -0.500 0.500 0.841 0.995

0.372 0.756 0.972 0.972 0.756 0.372 -0.095 -0.541 -0.866 -0.866 -0.541 -0.095

15 40 65 90 115 140 165 190 215 240 300 325 350

0.26 0.70 1.13 1.57 2.01 2.44 2.88 3.32 3.75 4.19 5.24 5.67 6.11

0.966 0.766 0.423 0.000 -0.423 -0.766 -0.966 -0.985 -0.819 -0.500 0.500 0.819 0.985

0.259 0.643 0.906 1.000 0.906 0.643 0.259 -0.174 -0.574 -0.866 -0.866 -0.574 -0.174

for 11 divisions (0 to 11) in 300 deg =300/11 27.27 deg/divn

for 12 divisions (0 to 12) in 300 deg 25