NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Postscript code for making Bygrave Scales
From: Marcelo S
Date: 2014 Mar 31, 11:47 -0300
From: Marcelo S
Date: 2014 Mar 31, 11:47 -0300
I understand that all the Hewlett-Packard printers supports postscript, including the new ones. 2014-03-29 12:56 GMT-03:00, Robin Stuart: > Off and on over the past few years I have been developing Postscript code to > produce Bygrave line of position slide rule scales. An earlier version of > the code was posted previously > http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx/Bygrave-Stuart-apr-2011-g16126 and was used to > produce Bygrave reproductions > http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx/MHR1-reproduction-Hasper-mar-2011-g16033 > http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx/MHR1-reproduction-Morris-apr-2011-g16115 In > those versions the rules for the scale ticks were programmed in the > Postscript code itself. It became clear that there is enough variability and > idiosyncrasies between the original Bygrave, the H�henrechenschieber MHR1 > and modern incarnation in the form of flat Bygraves that this approach is > not workable. Instead the new Postscript code I have written requires that > the characteristics of each and every tick on the scale be specified either > by reading the data from an external file or embedding it in the Postscript > code itself. The required data can be easily generated by a high level > computer language or perhaps a spreadsheet. Embedding the scale data in the > Postscript creates a self-contained file that could be sent directly to a > Postscript printer if such things still exist. For development and tweaking > I find it faster and more convenient to read the data from an external file. > This works fine on my Windows XP computer but so far I haven't been able to > get it to work under Windows 8.1. Something to do with access permissions I > guess. Any suggestions? > > I attach a document explaining how to run the code, some examples of the > output that is possible and a zip file containing the code needed to produce > them. > > I believe that the code could be used to produce a practical modern Bygrave > for actual sight reductions. This would probably require plastic tubes to be > ground to precise diameters but to date I have not located a facility to do > this. I appears to be relatively straightforward to produce the end caps, > locking knobs and other fittings by 3D printing. > > Robin Stuart > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > NavList message boards and member settings: www.fer3.com/NavList > Members may optionally receive posts by email. > To cancel email delivery, send a message to NoMail[at]fer3.com > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > Attached File: http://fer3.com/arc/imgx/BygraveScales.pdf > Attached File: http://fer3.com/arc/imgx/BygraveAltFlat.pdf > Attached File: http://fer3.com/arc/imgx/BygraveFlat.pdf > Attached File: http://fer3.com/arc/imgx/BygraveMHR1.pdf > Attached File: http://fer3.com/arc/imgx/BygraveMkIIA.pdf > Attached File: http://fer3.com/arc/imgx/Stuart-BygraveFiles.zip > > > : http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx?i=127398 > > > >