How can we edit objects in a radial array?

My students and I are trying to create clock faces using the Radial Array tool. We created a text box and filled it with the letter “T” as a place holder for the hours. We then selected that box and applied the radial array tool to duplicate it 12 times and array the boxes concentric with the center holes for our clock mechanisms.

We then imported the array. Now we are trying to replace the “T” in the text box with the actual numbers of the hours, 1-12. But the text boxes are not acting like normal text boxes in Easel. Normally we can edit the text in a text box by selecting the text and over typing. But we are not able to edit the letters in our text boxes once they have been put through the radial array tool.

Although we can work around this using trig to calculate the position of 12 text boxes, most of my students are 10-11, and not really ready for trig.

Any suggestions?

Just a guess (I’m not really an Easel user), but instead of a T, put a simple point in the middle and set its cut depth to 0 so it doesn’t really cut, then do your radial array. Then maybe you can go back and use that dot as an anchor point to add the required number.

Thanks Steve, It’s not the answer I was hoping for, but I played around a bit and it may be workable. A bit more complex for this early in the quarter maybe. We will muddle through this time, but in future I’ll have to come up with some sort of intermediate design project before this one.

It bugs me though that once I put a text box into an array, it’s no longer an editable text box. Can’t quite figure out why the application needs to behave that way.