Home Lesson Challenges History Site Map About Links
SpaceCAD
LESSON 5. More editing - Mercury Spacecraft Instrument Panel

STEP 3. Add clock hands.
Now make a circle, with a radius of .15 (diameter = .3). Use Snap to Center to position it in the center of the larger circle as shown below.

Now start drawing the hour hand. Draw a slightly slanted line using Snap to Center to start it in the center of the smaller circle and Snap to Grid to end it. It should be 1.00 long. Then make a smaller line slanting in the opposite direction that is .3 long as shown below.

Now we are going to learn another new command: Mirror X . Click the Mirror X icon to start the mirroring. Then select the half of the hour hand you just draw (shown in purple below). Right click to stop selecting entities. When prompted with "Mirror X: Point?", set Snap to End, then left click on the bottom of the hand (D1).

Then select "yes" in response to the "Copy While Mirroring?" prompt. Then you've completed the first hand.

The minute hand is the same as the hour hand, except for size. Therefore, we will copy the large one, rotate it, then scale it down to the smaller size. To start this process, copy the hand you just drew next to the first one. (see below). Use the Copy command to do this.

Now its time for yet another new command. This one is called Rotate . Click on Rotate and select the hand you just copied (see below).

When prompted for the "Center of Rotation?" pick the endpoint of the hand. When prompted for "Angle of Rotation?" type in "180" in the Ang box at the bottom of the CadStd screen.

Then select another new command (after this lesson you'll be a pro:). This one is Move . Leaving the copy highlighted, click on the . When prompted with "Copy: From?" set the Snap to End, and left click on the base of the needle. Then, when prompted with "Copy: To?" , set the Snap to Center and click on the edge of the circle. This will move the new hand into the center of the dial.

Now for the final new command of this section of lesson 5. This one is called Scale . This will be used at least 4 more times in this lesson so learn it well. With the hand still highlighted, click the Scale icon. Set the Scale Factor to .7. When prompted with "Scale: Point?", set Snap to Center and left click on the edge of the circle. Then the hand should match the smaller one shown below.