Re: beaded EOT graph available
Hi John, I'd like a copy of the file, please. An alternative to an EoT graph (which some members of the public find surprisingly difficult to read), many old dials used a form of table, often curved around the dial. The months, with individual days, were laid out in a linear (or circular) strip, with a nonlinear scale of EoT (in whole minutes) running next to it. I've recently put this on a new dial, and find that it can be read to half a minute on any day. This is about the same accuracy that the 12 horizontal dial can be read to. Best regards, and thanks for making the DeltaCAD file available, John --- Dr J R Davis Flowton, UK 52.08N, 1.043E email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Original Message - From: John Carmichael [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: sundial@rrz.uni-koeln.de Sent: 08 November 2000 15:27 Subject: beaded EOT graph available Hello All: About a year ago, Tony Moss made some beautiful 4 x 8 inch bronze Equation of Time plaques for me. When we were working on their design, I originally wanted them to have horizontal lines of one minute increments and vertical lines of five day increments. This made a graph which was very busy with way too many closely spaced lines, so we ended up using horizontal lines of five minute increments and vertical lines with 5 day increments. To avoid using so many lines, I recently designed a beaded EOT graph with beads on the curve representing dates at ten day increments, and horizontal lines with one minute increments. I also indicate the solstices and equinoxes with larger beads. This version is attractive, precise and very easy to read. If anybody would like my original Delta Cad file (14.2 KB) of my beaded EOT graph please tell me and I'll send it as an attachment. (note: you must have Delta Cad to view this. Unfortunately,I tried converting the DC file to GIF, JPEG, and BMP files, but for some reason the beads don't show up in these formats). Best John Carmichael Tucson Arizona p.s To draw this graph on Delta Cad, I went about it in a roundabout way. Because there are no programs available for drawing customized Delta Cad EOT curves, I scanned the EOT graph in the Shadows generator program and placed the scanned photo in DC. Then I traced over all the lines, added some nice text and borders, then erased the photo. pps. It would be nice to have a DC macro which would allow the user to draw customized EOT graphs with different time and date increments and different allowable spacings between these lines. This way, you could make EOT curves of different sizes and shapes which would be convenient for adding to dial faces that have limited available free space.
Re: beaded EOT graph available
John Carmichael contributed: When designing a sundial, sometimes blank available space for an EOT graph on the sundial face is limited to a certain size and shape. It would be nice to be able to design EOT graphs of different shapes for this reason. This is a very simple task in Adobe Illustrator with the Draw Tools filter. A pre-drawn graph, complete with lines and numerals, can be skewed or stretched to fit any rectilinear shape, wrapped around a sphere, cone, cylinder etc. or even placed accurately on a waving flag of your own design with a few simple 'drags' and keystrokes. Contrary to popular belief I do not own shares in Adobe. :-) but I wish I did! Tony Moss P.S. Just to amuse myself I made a 'Waving Flag' out of the beaded EofT John kindly sent me and saved it as an Acrobat file which anyone with an Acrobat Reader/Viewer should be able to see. His DXF file was 'Opened' in Illustrator, text Converted to Outlines, Grouped, and committed to a Free Distort rectangle in Draw Tools which I'd previously dragged into a flag shape. The whole operation took less than a minute. It's only 170k. Copies on request. P.P.S. I'm not nutty enough to think that EofT Flags may have some use. This is merely to illustrate what is possible.
beaded EOT graph available
Hello All: About a year ago, Tony Moss made some beautiful 4 x 8 inch bronze Equation of Time plaques for me. When we were working on their design, I originally wanted them to have horizontal lines of one minute increments and vertical lines of five day increments. This made a graph which was very busy with way too many closely spaced lines, so we ended up using horizontal lines of five minute increments and vertical lines with 5 day increments. To avoid using so many lines, I recently designed a beaded EOT graph with beads on the curve representing dates at ten day increments, and horizontal lines with one minute increments. I also indicate the solstices and equinoxes with larger beads. This version is attractive, precise and very easy to read. If anybody would like my original Delta Cad file (14.2 KB) of my beaded EOT graph please tell me and I'll send it as an attachment. (note: you must have Delta Cad to view this. Unfortunately,I tried converting the DC file to GIF, JPEG, and BMP files, but for some reason the beads don't show up in these formats). Best John Carmichael Tucson Arizona p.s To draw this graph on Delta Cad, I went about it in a roundabout way. Because there are no programs available for drawing customized Delta Cad EOT curves, I scanned the EOT graph in the Shadows generator program and placed the scanned photo in DC. Then I traced over all the lines, added some nice text and borders, then erased the photo. pps. It would be nice to have a DC macro which would allow the user to draw customized EOT graphs with different time and date increments and different allowable spacings between these lines. This way, you could make EOT curves of different sizes and shapes which would be convenient for adding to dial faces that have limited available free space.
Re: beaded EOT graph available
Hello Fer: Yes, I've seen the eotgraph.bas macro program for Delta Cad. This program only allows the user to change the year; it does not let allow changes in the line separation distance, date increments, and minute increments. I have seen many different EOT graphs with different shapes. Sometimes the curve has a tall amplitude and sometimes it is flatter depending on the horizontal minute line, and vertical date line separation distances. When designing a sundial, sometimes blank available space for an EOT graph on the sundial face is limited to a certain size and shape. It would be nice to be able to design EOT graphs of different shapes for this reason. Adding beads and text and changing the size, of course, is very easy with Delta Cad. However, it doesn't allow you to change the SHAPE of the curve. Thanks again Fer for your comments. John Hi John, I would be pleased to receive your Deltacad program for beaded EoT graph. There is a Deltacad program eotgraph.bas in the file programs.zip that can be downloaded from the site of the NASS. This program draws the basic EoT graph for any year you want and perhaps you can rewrite the program to add the wanted beads. In that case you may choose your graph for a certain year. Best wishes, Fer. Fer J. de Vries [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.iae.nl/users/ferdv/ Eindhoven, Netherlands lat. 51:30 N long. 5:30 E - Original Message - From: John Carmichael [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: sundial@rrz.uni-koeln.de Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2000 4:27 PM Subject: beaded EOT graph available Hello All: About a year ago, Tony Moss made some beautiful 4 x 8 inch bronze Equation of Time plaques for me. When we were working on their design, I originally wanted them to have horizontal lines of one minute increments and vertical lines of five day increments. This made a graph which was very busy with way too many closely spaced lines, so we ended up using horizontal lines of five minute increments and vertical lines with 5 day increments. To avoid using so many lines, I recently designed a beaded EOT graph with beads on the curve representing dates at ten day increments, and horizontal lines with one minute increments. I also indicate the solstices and equinoxes with larger beads. This version is attractive, precise and very easy to read. If anybody would like my original Delta Cad file (14.2 KB) of my beaded EOT graph please tell me and I'll send it as an attachment. (note: you must have Delta Cad to view this. Unfortunately,I tried converting the DC file to GIF, JPEG, and BMP files, but for some reason the beads don't show up in these formats). Best John Carmichael Tucson Arizona p.s To draw this graph on Delta Cad, I went about it in a roundabout way. Because there are no programs available for drawing customized Delta Cad EOT curves, I scanned the EOT graph in the Shadows generator program and placed the scanned photo in DC. Then I traced over all the lines, added some nice text and borders, then erased the photo. pps. It would be nice to have a DC macro which would allow the user to draw customized EOT graphs with different time and date increments and different allowable spacings between these lines. This way, you could make EOT curves of different sizes and shapes which would be convenient for adding to dial faces that have limited available free space.
