Well Peter, in fact Skinman is not that complicated, apart from the Bolean system.
First, what one has to know, is that it is a vector based drawing software.
So every object is indépendant from each other, and its properties can be changed anytime.
Second, the tree view is very important, as it displays the order into which each object will be displayed, the topmost one being the "farthest", i.e. the object being drawn first, then overlayed by any subsequent object. So, if you want to create a simple gauge with a needle, your needle object has to be positioned after the bezel itself in the tree view to be visible.
You can add as many levels as you like, and more importantly, you can modify the objects display order in the tree view by clicking and dragging the object's name in the tree view.
After a while you'll end up with dozens of objects in the tree view. To get things sorted, you can use two or three tricks:
1- Give to some of the objects/groups a meaningful name in the tree view (select the object then press F2). For example, instead of a generic "line", a name such as "Yellow_needle" is more meaningful when you have dozens of objects.
2- group your objects by logic: say your gauge's needle is comprised of three objects: a line, a shape and a center axis. Select the three objects in the tree view with your mouse (shift+click), then choose
Group in the
Edit/Primitive menu. The three objects will be grouped in the tree view and a small
+ sign will be added, so you can collapse/expand the group in the tree view by clicking on this +/- symbol. Here again give at least to the first object of the group a meaningful name.
You can then move the whole group at once by clicking on it in the tree view, then moving the group with the keyboard arrow keys
3- there are three clickable dots in front of each object''s name in the tree view: though I don't know what's the use of the second one, the first one (the small eye icon) is for the visibility of the object OR the group if you've created one.
The third dot (a padlock icon) "locks" the object/group on the screen, so it can't be inadvertently moved if you ever click on the object area in the drawing window.
As for the properties tab, the best advice I could give is to start experimenting. Create a single object such as a rectangle, then play with the drop shadows, one parameter after another, and see what it does. A hint: the "Alpha" setting sets the transparency of the object, from 100%(fully opaque) to 0%(transparent). The Master Alpha parameter is related to the whole object, while the other Alpha parameters relate to some parts of the objects, namely the outline or the fill colors.
There are dozens of parameters available, so it's almost impossible to talk about each of these, but if you are more specific, we can try to help you on this very point.
As for the drop shadows, it adds some sense of depth to your objects. To be realistic NEVER change the standard angle direction (-45) of the drop shadow. This is because the brain is used to recognise shadows coming from a "sun" located from the northwest position(-45 degrees). If you ever change the direction, your brain will interpret incorrectly the depth of the object, and your object will seem to be "weird".
To add a drop shadow to an object, simply add some
density to the 1st shadow dialog parameter (forget about the second shadow, unless in special cases such as simulating night lighting), I found a density of 60% suitable in most cases. The sense of depth is given by the
offset parameter, the greater the offset, the farther the object seems to be from the background. Be warned that it is a 2D trick only to simulate thickness, so don't go over an offset of 10 to 20 to get appropriate results.
Here's a "quick and dirty" sample instrument, so you can have a look to get the points I exposed. Simply unzip the attached file and open it using Skinman
I advise you to browse also the AM forum, as there is already some interesting posts on Skinman.
Hope this helps.
Jacques
When I'll have the time, I'll set up a step by step tutorial for creating a simple engine gauge for example.