Graduations and half circle

Help and techniques for creating Air Manager Instrument Graphics

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oscarDelta77
Posts: 57
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:58 pm

Graduations and half circle

#1 Post by oscarDelta77 »

Hello !

I'm trying to ake an EGT gauge (Pa28 Warrior).

I need 2 things :
- How to invert start of gradutations (using lines)

What i get :
Image

what i want :
Image

- How to create an half circle like this ?
Image

Thanks for your help !

JackZ
Posts: 2262
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2016 1:02 pm

Re: Graduations and half circle

#2 Post by JackZ »

Hi.

For static assets like this scale in the background of your instrument, the best is to use a png image that you will use in your instrument’s Lua code with img_add() or img_add_fullscreen()
So it really depends on which graphic editor you use to create.
I tend to use and recommend using Skinman, but others like Inkscape or Illustrator will do.

If you are trying to do that using canvas(), the best is to publish your Lua code here.
Copy/paste the code, select the whole code and press the </> button in the editor when replying, to have the code properly formatted.
There is no function to create a half circle or ellipse in canvas draw, so you’ll have to be creative and hide a part of the full circle with a rectangle that has the color of the background to make it disappear.
Jacques
My YouTube Chanel on the A320 (Real SOPs by an Airline Pilot IRL):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 0Q6SBASRqJ

oscarDelta77
Posts: 57
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:58 pm

Re: Graduations and half circle

#3 Post by oscarDelta77 »

Hi JackZ,

Thanks ! I'm working with SkinMan and managed to get an half Circle :

Image

That's not perfect, but i'm on my way.

For the scale, i can't figure out how to do this with SkinMan, I'll have a look on Canvas (I've never worked with Canvas!). I will try with inkscape too !

JackZ
Posts: 2262
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2016 1:02 pm

Re: Graduations and half circle

#4 Post by JackZ »

Your scale looks like a half ellipse, is it normal?
For the scale in Skinman, use the star tool (improperly called "lines" in Skinman), with the depth parameter as needed to create the ticks. The ticks color are using from border color and can have different witdh.
You then play with the start and stop angles for half a circle or whatever range, and play with number of vertexes
OR you can create a circle used as a Boolean (shape-) operator to “substract” from the star the outer part.
Don’t bother with canvas draw, and if you are comfortable with Skinman, stay with it!
Note that the red circle is actually a dial IRL, it is used to manually setup a yellow needle that is positioned as per the peak EGT temperature or so, so you know the proper setting of mixture in subsequent flights.

Jacques
Last edited by JackZ on Tue Aug 31, 2021 11:08 pm, edited 3 times in total.
My YouTube Chanel on the A320 (Real SOPs by an Airline Pilot IRL):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 0Q6SBASRqJ

JackZ
Posts: 2262
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2016 1:02 pm

Re: Graduations and half circle

#5 Post by JackZ »

A picture is worth 1000 words:
image.png
Here the lines are set to different colors for demonstration purposes, but of course, once set to all white, the scale will appear in all its glory.
Play with the overall size of the Lines shapes (width/height) to achieve the desired length of each tick series, and adjust the center of each line to be the same (the center is at the center of the red guide star lines, and is where your needle center of rotation is located)

My advice is to start with a guide made of a complete set of line (the one in RED), that you will hide (click on the eye) when finished.
Then create and position the arc, which is an ellipse with a border only (ie Pie and fill tick box are unticked) and of course the same center as the guide. Start and Stop angle are set in my example at -45/45
Then from here, create a different set of lines for each tick by playing with the Vertex parameters (each number is doubled, here i started with 6 vertex (Yellow), then 12(blue), then 24(magenta)), with an identical start/end angle (-45/+45), different length/height (but always the same origin center, Yellow is 520x520, Blue is 510x510and magenta is 500x500)) and different width (between 3 and 1)
Then play with the depth parameter of each lines serie to have each tick serie settle at the beginning of the arc.

As per your half circle, the easiest part is to use the ellipse tool, make sure that Size has the same parameter in width and height (that a circle after all) and play with the start/stop parameters (here -90/90)

Jacques
image.png
My YouTube Chanel on the A320 (Real SOPs by an Airline Pilot IRL):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 0Q6SBASRqJ

oscarDelta77
Posts: 57
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:58 pm

Re: Graduations and half circle

#6 Post by oscarDelta77 »

Hi Jacques,

A big Thanks for your help !

I think it's better now :

Image

However, now, the EGT VAR doesn't seems to work : "GENERAL ENG EXHAUST GAS TEMPERATURE:1", "Fahrenheit" always return 0.

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Ralph
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Re: Graduations and half circle

#7 Post by Ralph »

There might be 2, and one of those works. Don't ask me why...

JackZ
Posts: 2262
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2016 1:02 pm

Re: Graduations and half circle

#8 Post by JackZ »

oscarDelta77 wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 7:38 pm Hi Jacques,

A big Thanks for your help !

I think it's better now :

Image

However, now, the EGT VAR doesn't seems to work : "GENERAL ENG EXHAUST GAS TEMPERATURE:1", "Fahrenheit" always return 0.
Glad it helped!
I suggest you add a shadow in SkinMan to your needle resource image, so that it does not appears as "glued" on the background. An offset value of 7 to 8 and density of 60 is usually fine.
And a small needle (can be seen in the picture of the original instrument) that is manually operated via the screw at the center for EGT limit setting

As per the EGT variable, I had a quick look at it, and they publish a value of 0.00 . Weird...

Jacques
My YouTube Chanel on the A320 (Real SOPs by an Airline Pilot IRL):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 0Q6SBASRqJ

JackZ
Posts: 2262
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2016 1:02 pm

Re: Graduations and half circle

#9 Post by JackZ »

Well after a bit of tinkering trying to find the proper variable, this one seems to work and returns a proper value in Rankine, celsius or farenheit degrees.

Code: Select all

 fs2020_variable_subscribe("GENERAL ENG EXHAUST GAS TEMPERATURE:1","farenheit","GENERAL ENG EXHAUST GAS TEMPERATURE:2","farenheit",new_egt_callback)
One has to have the latest AM plugin installed 3.6, earlier versions of the plugin returned nothing

Jacques
My YouTube Chanel on the A320 (Real SOPs by an Airline Pilot IRL):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 0Q6SBASRqJ

oscarDelta77
Posts: 57
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 9:58 pm

Re: Graduations and half circle

#10 Post by oscarDelta77 »

@JackZ

I'm sorry, i missed your last post !

I'm working on this gauge again, and its' almost good.

I can't figure out how to modify the white needle axis of rotation (it should be the same as the purple lines)

Image

I've tried many thing, without success.

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