Looks Good on Paper

[colonelcline]

The Nutcracker models look great on the screen, now I am going to build one. I have 32 25' strings of pixels and am trying to find a  height relative to diameter that will look best. Anyone know the angle values of the nutcracker trees? Or maybe it looks better wider or maybe thinner?

[sean]

i think the best ratio is the diameter of the base is half the height of the tree.

so for 25', use 12' diameter base

[Steve Gase]

applying what sean said...

your 25' strings will become the hypotenuse of a right triangle.  so pull out the high school geometry book...


if you recall the Pythagorean tTeorem:  "a squared plus b squared equals c squared".

The trunk of the tree forms one side of the triangle: "a"...   
The base of the nicely-shaped tree is 1/2 of the height... or a/2...  but the tree creates 2 right triangles... so the other side of the triangle which is the radius or "b" is (a/2)/2

We get this:

(a*a) + (a/4 * a/4) = 25ft*25ft

solve for a (the trunk)...   24.25ft
solve for b (the radius)...  6.06ft
and the diameter is...  12.12ft

ok...  Sean's answer was good enough.  the kid's geometry book can stay on the shelf.

[jnealand]

+1 for Sean the rule of thumb I have always heard it to use half the length of the strings as you base diameter.  If I was to make adjustments from that it would be because I did not have enough strings to give the tree a good looking fullness.  In that case I would try a smaller diameter until the fullness was acceptable (to my spouse of course).  Or buy a few more strings.

[colonelcline]

Great advice from all. I have marked the perimeter off and will landscape the area for easy access. I'll post some pics. This is a 2" galvanized pipe flagpole now that is about 3' too short. I am having a topper for hoisting the strings and accepting the all-thread rod of the CCB star on top manufactured. Not settled on delivery yet as we do LOR, xlights and Pi. Trying a wireless-N setup this weekend and rs485 off the dmx (pixlite16) to a Lor setup and now I am dizzy. Pi is in setup phase now, unix guy on that. Anyway the flags at 6' around the pole look good from a distance.