Best way to create a wagon wheel with evenly-spaced spokes?

Started by Jennifer, March 10, 2022, 05:23:53 PM

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Jennifer

What's the best way to create a "wagon wheel" with a specific number of evenly-spaced spokes ?

I created this one by drawing one diameter line across the middle from left to right, locking the line length, replicating it 5 times changing the angle by 30 degrees each time. But by default, the rotation point is on one end, so each time I have to reposition it to go through the center. But there is no glue point in the middle of the line, so these lines are not perfectly centered.

I redid it starting with a radius line. Then the rotate point is at the center of the circle. I was able to replicate and rotate it 11 times.

Is there a better way to create a wagon wheel with N evenly-spaced spokes?

Using Visio 2019, part of Office 365 on Windows 10

wapperdude

All you need to do is draw your lines with length of entire, inner diameter, each at required angle.  At this point, they need not be centered, and preferrably, not inside the concentric circles..  Select all lines, then do center align followed by middle align.  (The order of the commands is not important.). All lines will be perfectly centered.  Now group.  Select one (or both) of circles and add select the line group.  Repeat the center/middle sequence.  Now all objects are identically centered.
Visio 2019 Pro

Jennifer

Quote from: wapperdude on March 10, 2022, 07:27:45 PM
All you need to do is draw your lines with length of entire, inner diameter, each at required angle.  At this point, they need not be centered, and preferrably, not inside the concentric circles..  Select all lines, then do center align followed by middle align.  (The order of the commands is not important.). All lines will be perfectly centered.  Now group.  Select one (or both) of circles and add select the line group.  Repeat the center/middle sequence.  Now all objects are identically centered.

Wow! That's really cool!! 😍🥰🥰 I wish I had known about that feature years ago. Now I have to go experiment with it.

I discovered that I can do it in one step is I select the lines and the circles all at once.

What do I do if I am dividing the pie into an odd number of slices? Then each line will be a radius, not a diameter. I didn't see a wayu to do that using Align.

Thanks
Using Visio 2019, part of Office 365 on Windows 10

wapperdude

How's that go...  Necessity is the mother of invention?

This ought to work.  First, in the Viewing Tab, open the Visual Aids menu.  Select the Glue to Shapes vertices.  Now draw your radial spokes. Choose any radius, and arbitrarily pick one end to be the center/hub.  Drag each of the remaining lines such that the appropriate end glues to your reference.  That's it.  Odd number of spokes cojmpleted.
Visio 2019 Pro

Jennifer

Quote from: wapperdude on March 11, 2022, 01:04:54 AM
How's that go...  Necessity is the mother of invention?

Hmmm... Invention? More like inquiry. 😉

This ought to work.  First, in the Viewing Tab, open the Visual Aids menu.  Select the Glue to Shapes vertices.  Now draw your radial spokes. Choose any radius, and arbitrarily pick one end to be the center/hub.  Drag each of the remaining lines such that the appropriate end glues to your reference.  That's it.  Odd number of spokes cojmpleted.
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That worked. Thanks. Here's one with 7 slices:



I had a little trouble with your method. My radius lines had a tendency to glue themselves to each other, rather than the circle center. I had to zoom in a bit to make sure I was gluing them to the circle center. After a bit of fiddling, I got it to work.

The angles can be tricky. For some numbers of slices (3, 5, 9, 15), the angles are integers. For others, they are infinite decimals. I ended up using this spreadsheet table to calculate the angles. I can then copy each angle to the Angle field in the Size & Position table.



I also discovered that the Align (Center & Middle) doesn't work here because there are no diameter lines. That means the center of the group is not where the lines all meet. (Surprise)

But all that got me to wondering how hard it would be to write some code to do it automagically. I've written a lot of Excel code and a few Word macros, but no Visio code. Would that be beyond my skills? My plan would be to pass it the circle object and the number of segments.

???
Using Visio 2019, part of Office 365 on Windows 10