Hello,

I'm trying to make a clock with roman number (I, II, III, IV,...) rotating all around. I've tried using "Create Tilded Clones" with a 30º rotation but then I can't change the roman numbers: I get 12 "XII" and cannot edit them.

Any idea how to change clones values? (I'm currently placing new text over each clones and then delete them... )

Thanks for any suggestion.

I can't think of a super easy way to do this. I would create some guides for the center of your clock face, then draw a circle from this guide for the face. I would then create another set of guides so you can add text at the 12 o'clock position multiple times. Having done that, I would add the text, "I", at the 12 o'clock position then move the objects center of rotation to the center of the clock face and rotate the object 30 degrees. I would then repeat the process for each number (increasing the rotation each time by 30 degrees of course).

Where is heathenx when you need him. He(they) did like 3 tutorial on this. Here is a 4th method which was really quick when I did in inkscape, because the effect menu does the work for you. But now that I've written it down to looks kind of complicated.

Draw a perfect circle by holding down the shift and cntl. Make it about the size of the clock face you want. Check it is perfect in the tool control bar by selecting the circle with . If its not prefect fix it by typing new dimensions. Select the circle and measure the circle using Effects > visualize > measure path. (This gives you the path length in px which is what you need.) Take the path length divide by 12 and then round up. Use the rounded up number as the max node in the next effect used. Then convert the circle to path. Then effects > modify path > adds nodes -- set max node length to rounded up length. Delete the text that had the path length on it. Make sure you have a circle with 12 nodes. If you did not get 12 nodes undo and, play with the max distance between nodes until you get twelve node.

Next: Effects > visualize > path number nodes. Make the dot size really ruffly the size you want your font to be. (Just ignore the node numbers that are added by this effect.) Go to document properties shift cntl d. Modify the last two snap tabs to this:



Type in your 12 roman numerals . Move the numerals over the dots. The numerals centers will snap to the middle of the dots. The lower right corn of the text bound box also snaps so make sure they are centered on the dots. Delete the numbered path dots or hide them on another layer and you are done. And you might want to set the snap settings back to their old settings.

Or if that seems to complicated http://screencasters.heathenx.org/episode-034/ Look at the supplemental video in the lower tab too.


Edit: Thought of this after I type up all the other method:

SpaceCowboy wrote:Hello,

I'm trying to make a clock with roman number (I, II, III, IV,...) rotating all around. I've tried using "Create Tilded Clones" with a 30º rotation but then I can't change the roman numbers: I get 12 "XII" and cannot edit them.

Any idea how to change clones values? (I'm currently placing new text over each clones and then delete them... )

Thanks for any suggestion.

You need to unlock the clones from the original. I'm pretty sure you do that by selecting the clones then hitting the unlock on the tool control bar two spots over from duplicate. When you click on the number it's shouldn't say clone int he bottom wind and you should be able to modify.