Meter - from Tonne Software

The Windows ® program for drawing analog meter scales

Included on the CD accompanying the 2008 ARRL Handbook

Meter (trial version) is one of the programs included on the Bonus CD accompanying the 2008 ARRL Handbook

(Revision history is at the bottom of this page)

This meter scale drawing program is designed to have a computer do the hard work in making a precision scale for a d'Arsonval analog meter. The resulting scales will typically be nicer-looking than those found on many commercial meters. Here are the highlights of this Windows program:

This program has the uncommon ability to "flatten" the arc a user-selectable amount to make a more modern-appearing scale. This is most usable with the thin "tubular" or "spadeless" style of pointer.
A graphic may be imported and placed on the scale. All the common graphic types (.BMP, .GIF, .ICO and .JPG) are accepted. Width, height and placement can be freely specified.
Meter draws up to four scales on a meter face.
Each scale can have its own number of tic marks, how many are made bold, how many are labeled, etc.
The length and width of both the minor and major tic marks are each adjustable.
The arcs may be printed or omitted and their width (thickness) can be specified. 360 degree arcs are supported.
The program delivers output to any graphics-capable printer, color or black-and-white, which has been installed on the Windows system. Just prior to printout the printer-selection panel appears to allow a last-minute change of printer.
The scale is written directly to the printer for maximum fidelity; the output is not a "screen dump." In practice the printer limits the fidelity of the output, which is considerably better than even a high-end computer monitor.
Each scale as well as its associated label may have its color freely specified.
The plate (background) color may be freely specified.
In addition to each scale's label, five more text strings can be placed on the plate. Each has its own text, placement, size and color.
Up to five "Highlights" may be added to a plate. These may be used to indicate warning, overload, or target areas. Each has indepdently assignable size, position and color.
The scaleplate width and height, the mounting hole positions, positioning of scales on the plate, and other items are all adjustable.
Each scale can have a specified linearity; specify a power (wattmeter) scale or a slightly nonlinear AC voltmeter scale with a few key strokes.
A calibration routine allows correction of printed output width and height errors, regardless of the cause.
Presentation on screen is autoscaled to always make a full-sized image regardless of scale size. The printer printout is auto-centered appropriately.
The program handles plate widths from 20 up to 180 mm, plate heights from 25 up to 120 mm.
Extensive entry checking reduces probability of ridiculous results.
A context-sensitive Help system with dozens of subjects and numerous graphics forms a virtual manual. The AppNote on this site is now included in the Help system.
In addition to that Help system, most of the input text boxes to specify items are supported by a graphic illustrating the item being changed. Just click on the button immediately-adjacent to the entry box to see the supporting graphic.
Text may be printed or omitted; serif ("Times Roman") and sans-serif ("Arial") fonts are available.
The various dimensional entries are all metric (mm). A ruler in millimeters is printed out along with the scale.
To support the ruler, a grid showing millimeters is printed on the screen.
The data to allow reconstruction of a given meterscale can be saved for recall later. It can also be printed out.
That data is also written automatically to a "LastSession" file at program exit time, allowing a simplified program restart.
The supplied file is a self-extracting installation routine. The program is installed in a standard manner. You may place its icon on the desktop as a shortcut.
This program is not a general-purpose drafting tool, and it won't duplicate the appearance of all existing scales. It will, however, do a very nice job of quickly making modern-appearing meter scales in a vast majority of cases.
Using the key system, upgrades are free: just download the later version, install it and get on with your projects!
Meterscale drawing methods involving pen and ink, erasers, compasses or transfer letters are now history.

Here are screen dumps from the program illustrating some of the outputs to the screen. Click on them to see larger versions; use your brower's BACK button to return.

Typical scale on the screen:	Plate design page:	Scale design page:
Text entry page:	Graphic entry page:	Highlight entry page:
Help:	Color selection:	Linearity exponent help:
New-style scale:	Old-style scale:

Updated to 2.27 12 May 2008 - allow 30 runs (was 10); show useage count on opening screen (was "About Meter" only)

Updated to 2.26 11 April 2008 - allow specification of plate background color (was white only)

Updated to 2.25 2 February 2008 - fixed incorrect colors

Updated to 2.24 15 September 2007 - corrected inability of some menubar items to function correctly

Updated to 2.21 11 May 2006 - corrected problem involving saving texts

Updated to 2.20 9 May 2006 - corrected error prohibiting entry of highlights

Updated to 2.19 14 February 2006 - Separate printer-driver routines for the "rotated" and "horizontal" ticmark labels. This generally but not always sidesteps printer idiosyncracies encountered in some printers when they print text on an angle. (Horizontal text prints correctly.)

Updated to 2.18 26 January 2006 - font-size error in 2.17 fixed.

Updated to 2.17 21 January 2006 - a major re-write to allow the ticmark labels to "rotate" about the pointer bearing. Numerous other minor items were upgraded as well.

Updated to 2.16 15 December 2005 - corrected text-position and text on/off errors

Updated to 2.15 8 December 2005 - input error-checking refinement, prohibition of excess printout size which jammed some printers.

Updated to 2.14 28 November 2005 - corrected graphic size and position error, now toggle grid and pointer lines, near total rewrite of Help system.

Updated to 2.13 22 November 2005 - corrected ticmark label vertical position error, "X" exit error.

Updated to 2.12 8 November 2005 - added "toolbar" for quick visually-logical access to common items; corrected printer-cancellation error.

Updated to 2.11 15 October 2005 - added "Highlights"; made Help system resolution-independent.

Updated to 2.10 5 October 2005 - clarified menu item "Print"; fixed error in HPGL file.

Updated to 2.09 22 September 2005 - changed internal items to allow commas for decimal-point specification of text size in those regions affected.

Updated to 2.08 10 September 2005 - output to the printer now uses only half of a sheet of paper. Design data is printed separately (done from the Scales Design page or the Plate Design page).

Updated to 2.07 2 September 2005 - significant upgrade to allow up to five independent text items to be placed on the plate. Each of these has location, color and size separately specificable. Application Note now part of the upgraded Help system

Updated to 2.06 27 August 2005 - make key system Windows-version independent

Updated to 2.05 12 July 2005 - use key file to convert trial version to full version. This conversion method simplifies upgrades from trial to full.

Updated to 2.04 1 November 2004 - save-file (an internal operation) modified for operation in global regions which use a comma for decimal

Updated to 2.03 17 October 2004 - added printer selection box

Updated to 2.02 28 September 2004 - added separate X- and Y-axis printer calibration

Released - 2.01 2 September 2004