Angle characteristics in a bolt circle (v. 5.4)

[[Mi...]]

Hi,

Is there an easy way in Calypso to report the angles between holes in a circular bolt pattern? Right now I use the "Angle between features" characteristic to report the angles (with respect to the coordinate system), but for, say, a 6X pattern, that requires 6 separate characteristics - one measuring from element 1 of the pattern to element 2, the next measuring element 2 to 3, and so forth. Surely i'm missing something.

This is in calypso 5.4, by the way.

[[De...]]

Generally I have not found a great method for doing this.

Once in a while the circumstances work out and you can use the following method, it depends what you are doing though.

Make the items a pattern. Purposely make the pattern include one extra iteration, so lets say you have 8 circles, make the pattern the correct angle but have 9 circles rather than 8.

Now, for your angle between features do the following.

First element in the characteristic: circlename(1,8,1)
Second element in the characteristic: circlename(2,9,1)

So keeping in mind that loops in calypso are called using (start,end,step) notation, the call above for the first element will start on the first circle, and the second element will start on the second circle. They will both increment one circle at a time. Because we made our pattern include an extra circle, (it will re-measure the first circle) it can now give an answer between circle 8 and circle 9 on the last time through the loop.