Creating a Dial in CorelDraw

Creating a Dial in CorelDraw – Originally published Oct 2003

One of the items that we need to create if we are doing work for industrial customers is dials. For a lot of people creating jobs like this can be intimidating and can seem quite daunting. However creating a dial is quite easy. For this exercise I will be creating a dial that has two series of graduations. One set of lines will be set at every 10 degrees starting at 0 and another line will be set every 10 degrees starting at 5 degrees.

1. The first step in creating a dial is to create our initial graduation. We will be duplicating this graduation in our dial. Figure one shows the intial graduation that is created. To keep it easy I would suggest that you start your line so that it is horizontal as per Figure 1. Make the line .5 inch long.

Figure 1

2. Now create a perfect circle that is 3 inches. Place the circle at h = 4 and v = 3.
3. Next place the line at x = 2.75.
4. Note: if you want just download the supplied help file and everything is loaded in the Corel file.
5. Figure 2 shows the circle line and guidelines created.

Note: that the circle is there for visual reference

Figure 2

6. Now we need to open up the rotate feature in the transformation docker. Go to ARRANGE | TRANSFORAMTION | ROTATE – see Figure 3.

Figure 3

7. You will see the transformation docker dock to the right side of the screen in CorelDraw. Figure 4 shows the rotate docker.

Figure 4

8. Next select the line that we created and enter the values as per figure 4 into the dialogue boxes. Make sure that you have selected the “Relative Center”.
9. Now click on the “Apply to Duplicate” and you will notice that a duplicate copy is created directly below the original line. It is 10 degrees below the original. If I wanted to go up instead of down I would have placed a – 10 in the Angle box.

Figure 5

10. Now keep hitting the “apply to duplicate” button until you have completely filled up the circle. See figure 6.

Figure 6

11. Now we need to complete the second set of lines that will fall in between the large lines.
12. Select the original line. In the angle box type in 5 degrees. Click “apply to duplicate”.
13. Figure 7 shows the line created. I have turned it red so that it is easily seen.

Figure 7

14. Next we need to select the shape tool (F10) and make the line shorter

Figure 8

15. Now go back to the angle setting in the rotate docker and change the angle back to 10 degrees. Click “apply to duplicate” to fill up your circle.
16. Figure 9 shows the finished circle.

Figure 9

17. For fun I have added in 4 numbers to correspond with a clock. The one special technique here is that the 4 numbers are all on the same arc. To figure this out download the file and check it out.