Inkscape: Score tracks
Previously I’ve had trouble drawing a score track that I thought reasonable. Some of it was as simple as how to get a nice looking score track with highlights every 5 and 10. Then there are more complex items such as how to get a rectangle that loops at exactly 100? 200? I’ve been asked this more than once and it really isn’t that hard.
A few small blindingly obvious (in retrospect) tricks work wonders:
- Draw a shape that will represent one of your score track locations
- Copy it 10 more times so that there are eleven of them in a row
- Highlight the first and last of them in your choice of 10-space manner
- Highlight the middle one for a 5-space
- Select them all
- Use the align tool to give them a common base line
- Copy the set and put them in a row, continuing the line at the end of the previous set
- Do this a few more times until you have 100 or so
- Repeatedly use the equal-horizontal-gaps tool in the align tool interspersed with adjusting the locations of the two end shapes to get them spaced the way you want
- Select and group that row
- Rotate it 90 degrees
- Make the 10-space end of the vertical row align verticall and horizontally with the bottom and left of the horizontal row and then group them
- Copy the vertical row again and repeat with the bottom and right of the horizontal row and group them giving you a U-shaped-scoring track
- Insert numbers into the cells as needed
A little arithmetic will yield how long your sides will need to be for a closed loop of 100 or whatever. Just chop your horizontal to that length, do the align bit, chop the vertical to suit, make the U-shape, copy up another horizontal row, align it again to the corners and Bob’s your uncle yet again.