Given the concept of making wood bendable via “living hinge” technique . . .
I would like to put tabs on an “arc” and have them line up accurately with the holes in the flexed piece of wood which I want to attach to to the piece with a curved (arc) edge.
I can measure the distance between the holes in a flat shape before it is flexed . . .
. . . but how do I measure along an arc so that the tabs will align with the holes?
I’m aware of the Lightburn measurement tool – and suspect that might be the answer – but, if this is the case, I don’t know how to apply the functionality of the measurement tool to this task . . . or if there is another way to approach this project.
It seems to me like there ought to be some geometric wizardry, some function or algorithm having to do with secants, circumferences, degrees of the arc, percentage of the circle, which one could find by plugging in some numbers . . . but I never got that far in high school math.
Does the “distance between” in the tool window refer to a straight-line distance, or the distance along the arc?
If I only wanted two tabs spaced 100 mm apart on the path (arc), could I use the technique described in that post to put the tabs anywhere on the path which I choose?
Can the copies along the path be “rotated” or moved in the same way as “Apply path to text”?
(I was assuming that you referenced that post for me as a solution to my question regarding measuring distance along arc.)
@berainlb - So, to clarify for my dense gray matter . . .
I could
(1) Create an arc [circle],
(2) Convert to path
(3) Add nodes [“centered” where I want the tabs to be]
(4) and Use the Measurement Tool, taking note of the Segment Length?
I think that would do what I wanted it to do WITHOUT any calculus on my part, with kudos to the Lightburn engineers!
Using the calculator, I’m guessing that I could create a circle using the circle tool – knowing the LENGTH of the radius [which I would line up with the center of each tab on the arc] – measure the angle [theta] between the two radi – and plug in the numbers.
Sounds good to me.
I don’t know how to actually measure the angle between points.
I would construct a radius line straight up, duplicate it , anchor the bottom, then rotate it to the center of the tab noting the angle. If the tab locations are symmetrical you can double the angle.
At the risk of belaboring the subject – for the sake of others trying to follow this – here is the step-by-step of what I had to do (which wasn’t entirely intuitive because it didn’t just “appear”) . . .
AFTER I created a circle and used a Boolean cut to get the shape I wanted . . .
(1) I inserted two nodes along the arc – partly because it didn’t seem like the program would let me select the nodes where the arc met the straight line
(2) I clicked on one of my created nodes and then, holding down CTRL I selected the other node.
(3) then I selected the Measure tool
(4) and then I had to select the Select [pointer] tool and when I dragged it over the segment(s) I wanted to measure, the segment changed color and I could read the measurement.
This method would work well also for the arcs of ellipses, whereas the arc calculator method might be limited to circles?
I also tried the method of drawing a line across an ellipse so that the ends of the line met the circle, added nodes at those intersections, and then used the measure tool and hovered the pointer over the segment which I wanted to measure.
I am currently on my phone, but I will for sure be checking your method for future use. I also am glad to have gleaned from the conversation.
Happy New Year.
I wonder if I could delete all of the steps in this thread and just post an efficient, simplified version of what I learned so that future sojourners wouldn’t have to wade through all of the "discoveries.
Measuring an ellipse was a little “wonky” because the nodes were not evenly distributed between the two points of interest . . . but that could also be due to my clumsy construction. [berainlb was correct that I did not need to “select” nodes in order to make measurements.]
Note two of the PINK “segments” comparing these to screen shots:
