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Astro Gold MacOS 5 User Guide

Navigation: Wheel Editor

Wheel Rings and Circles

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Rings

An astrological wheel is simply made up of a variable number of rings. A ring is a band of space between two concentric circles, in which information can be displayed. A section of a typical astrological wheel ring is shown below. The information this ring is displaying is "Cusp Annotation".


Wheel Editor; ring section

The only exception to this is the ring that graphically displays the chart's aspects. This ring is always positioned in the very center of the wheel (is the innermost ring) and therefore is able to be fully defined by a single circle rather than two - thus the single circle that defines this ring is always the last and innermost circle. The information this ring displays is "Aspect Lines".


Wheel Editor; aspect ring

 

When you first open a wheel design file (has .wh* extension type) in the Wheel Editor, all the rings that make up the wheel are shown (along with their contents) in the wheel displayed in the Wheel Editor.

Additionally, as shown in the Wheel Editor graphic, there is:

an area on the left of the displayed wheel called the Rings area - with the title "Rings" - displaying the name of each of the wheel's rings.

below the Rings area a Properties area - initially titled "Circles" - is in the bottom left of the window.

Circles

The Properties area shows the "proportionate radius" of each circle in the wheel, relative to a radius of 1.0 - which is always the (symbolic) radius of the first and outermost circle used to build the wheel. If this information isn't showing click on the Icon; Wheel Editor; All Rings button in the Rings area.

So the first circle is the outermost circle with a radius value of 1.0, and the second circle is the second to outermost circle etc.

To illustrate the circles more you can highlight them. You can click on each circle in the Properties area, and when you do, that circle in the wheel will be highlighted in a bold dashed red circle.

Below, circle 3 in the Properties list is highlighted, and it represents the ring 3rd in from the outermost ring (which is always circle number 1). Therefore correspondingly in the wheel the 3rd circle in from the outermost circle is also highlighted. To remove the bold dashed red highlighting round the circle in the wheel click on the Button; Wheel Editor; Circle highting Offbutton in the top right of the Properties area.

Circle 3 has a radius of 0.5. What that means is that the third circle is exactly half way between the very center of the wheel and the first outermost circle (0.5 is half of 1.0).

 


Window; Wheel Editor; ring highlighted in wheel

 

 

>> How to Add and Remove rings in a wheel

1.Click on Actions and a menu will dropdown

2.Depending on what you want to do, click on Add Ring or Remove Ring

3.Click on the ring you want to add or remove


Menu; Wheel Editor; Actions; Add Ring

 

>> How to see where each ring is displayed in the wheel

1.Click on a ring in the Rings area and all other rings in the displayed wheel will be shaded so the ring you clicked on stands out.

2.As you click on each ring in the Rings area it will become clear what that ring looks like in the wheel. In the graphic below "House Numbers" is clicked and that is what stands out in the displayed wheel.


Window; Wheel Editor; AstroGold.wh1; House numbers

 

>> How to alter the Layout (order) of the Rings in a wheel

1.Click on a ring in the Rings area, e.g. in the above graphic "House Numbers" is clicked.

2.Click on either the up arrow or the down arrow in the arrow control Button; Wheel Edfitor; Rings up-down arrow to the right of the Rings title in the Rings area (circled in orange in the graphic above, pointed to by an orange arrow in the graphic below). This will move the ring up or down in the order of rings, either closer to the outside or closer to the inside of the wheel. The exception to this is the Aspect Lines ring, which always is the innermost ring in any chart.

3.In the graphic above, if the up arrow in the arrow control was clicked once, the highlighted ring (House Numbers) would move outwards in the wheel, with a now changed order within all the wheel rings, as shown below.


Window; Wheel Editor; AstroGold.wh1; House numbers moved

 

>> Changing the size of Rings in a wheel

1.Click on the Icon; Wheel Editor; All Rings button in the Rings area to display the circles in the Properties area.

2.Decide which ring you want to change the size of.

In the Properties area

3.Identify the circle(s) that define the ring. That is, the circles that create the outer and inner borders of the ring. You can click on any circle which will highlight where it is in the wheel, and thus see which ring it is a part of.

4.Decide how you want to change the size of the ring:

a)By making its outer circle larger or smaller => click on the outer circle of the ring.

b)By making its inner circle larger or smaller => click on the inner circle of the ring.

5.Click on either the up arrow or the down arrow in the arrow control Button; Wheel Edfitor; Rings up-down arrow to the right of the Circles title.

a)Clicking on the up arrow will make the circle larger - and as you do you'll see the radius of the circle increase.

i.If this is the outer circle of the ring you are changing it will increase the size of the ring (while simultaneously decreasing the size of any ring outside it)

ii.If this is the inner circle of the ring you are changing it will decrease the ring size (while simultaneously increasing the size of any ring inside it)

b)Clicking on the down arrow will make the circle smaller - and as you do you'll see the radius of the circle decrease.

i.If this is the outer circle of the ring you are changing it will decrease the ring size (while simultaneously increasing the size of any ring outside it)

ii.If this is the inner circle of the ring you are changing it will increase the ring size (while simultaneously decreasing the size of any ring inside it)

Below is an example of one possible change that could be made to the AstroGold uniwheel design - enlarging the area for aspect lines. The procedure for doing this was:

1.Click on Circle 2, then click repeatedly on the up arrow until the "Chart Annotation" ring is narrowed as much as possible while still leaving room for the glyphs.

2.Click on Circle 3, then click repeatedly on the up arrow until the "Chart Points" ring is narrowed as much as possible while still leaving room for the glyphs, degrees and minutes.

3.Click on Circle 4, then click repeatedly on the up arrow until the "House Numbers" ring is narrowed as much as possible while still leaving room for the numbers.

The ring that Circle 4 (highlighted below) is the outer circle of (in other words the innermost ring - "Aspect Lines"), will have a much greater area available for itself.

 

 

 

Window; Wheel Editor; aspect ring enlargened

 

>> Changing the properties of Rings in a wheel

1.In the Rings area click on the ring you want to set properties for. This will highlight the ring in the wheel, and display the properties for the ring in the Properties area.

2.Most of the properties are self explanatory. When changing the property value you can immediately see the effect of the change in the displayed wheel.

3.In the Rings area if you cannot see the full ring description hover the mouse over the ring and within a few seconds the description will be displayed in a tool tip.


Wheel Editor; Rings, Tooltips

 

Retrograde Symbols

To get the retrograde symbol Πto appear in the chart:

1)In the Rings area, in the list click on Chart Points.

2)In the Properties area, click on the dropdown list in the Value column, to the right of the "Display Items" property

3)Select Degs/Mins/retro.

Dialog; Wheel Editor; Chart Points; Display Items

 

 

 

 

 

Dialog; Wheel Editor; Chart Points; Display Items dropped down; 

NOTE: You will need to do this for every ring that contains chart points that you want to display the retrograde symbol in.

For example, for a biWheel, in the Rings area you'll need to select Chart Points (Cht 1) and edit its Display Items property, then also select Chart Points (Cht 2) and edit its Display Items property, etc.

 

>> Undoing or Redoing your changes

1.Click on Actions.

2.To undo your last change click on Undo (or press Mac Command symbol Z anytime)

3.To redo the last change you undid, click on Redo (or press ñMac Command symbol Z anytime)

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