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Wheel Bar. The Wheel Bar has controls
that allow you to set the size and the speed of rotation of the two wheels.
Circle Radius. The two Circle Radius
controls set the size of each wheel. The size is represented by a circle on each
wheel and can be varied between 1% and 100% of the wheel size.
The up/down buttons increase/decrease the Radius values by 0.1. Holding down
the control key when you press the buttons, increases the increment/decrement
value to 1.0
Wheel RPM. The two Wheel RPM control
set the rotation speed in RPM. The values can range from -100 RPM to +100 RPM.
Positive values rotate the wheels clockwise, negative values rotate them counter
clockwise. The up/down buttons increase/decrease the Radius values by 0.1.
Holding down the control key when you press the buttons, increases the
increment/decrement value to 1.0
Lock Buttons. Pressing the small
"Chain-Link" button between the controls locks the two controls together so
changing one, changes the other to the exact same value.
Planetary Wheels. The size of the
smaller, secondary planetary-wheels, is governed by the size of the circle
inside the main wheels. The smaller wheel always has its center on the circle
radius and its radius on the radius of the big wheel. Thus the small wheel is
always the circle radius minus the wheel radius times two.
Wheel Parameters And Patterns.
Changing the Circle radius changes the pattern by changing the relationship of
one circle to the other. Likewise, changing the RPM changes the pattern if the
RPM is different for each circle. Both of these factor effect the kind of
pattern that is generated.
In Two-Wheel mode, you want the circle-sizes and RPM to be different between
the wheels. If they are the same size and the RPM, the pattern will be a simple,
unchanging loop. However, if the wheels are different sizes or rotate at
different speeds, speeds, the phase relationship between the circles is
constantly changing, which produces a complex pattern.
In the two planetary modes, it is best to use the same or similar radii and
RPM values for both wheels. In the planetary modes, the patterns are produced by
the relationship between the big wheels and the little wheels. When the
circumference of the big wheel is not an even multiple of the small wheel, the
wheels may not return to the same position for hundreds of turns. This produces
complicated patterns. If you use different Radii or RPMs for each wheel, the
resulting drawing may be so complicated that it is hard to distinguish any
pattern, which may not be very pleasing visually.
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