Question

What is the best way to program an LED number tick. I need to have a number display that goes up to 1,000,000.00. Dynamic text fields are not an option because of symbol instances. How would I make a counter?

ANIMATION

The numbers move in increments like an LED display. This

NUMBERS

The numbers multiple by ten each space over
decimal point numbers are not whole, so they go really fast
There’s a 16,000 frame limit in flash

SYMBOLS

column of numbers that moves in increments, for each number place

WHAT WOULD IT REQUIRE?

numbers move at a rate in multiples of 10
decimal points times one hundred

FRAME BASED OR TIME BASED?

There’s a 16,000 frame limit in Flash
Time based method would require a lot of code
the add and remove child issue
alt text http://www.ashcraftband.com/myspace/videodnd/number_example.jpg

TRANSITION EFFECT

A "tick"
move 10 pixels each time etc.
9 and 0 roll over smoothly

Answer 1

In Flash, and to achieve the result in your picture there, I would create 2 MovieClips:

• A black bar with a decimal point
• The grey digits in a column, 0 -> 0, as suggested by your pic

Then, combine the black bar and 9 of the digit columns into a single MovieClip to represent your counter, along with a custom base class for it. This allows you fine-grained control over the entire counter.

Provide a CounterClip::Step() or ::Tick() method (or whatever you want to call it) that can move the individual columns. You can use the flash.transitions.Tween class to create smooth animations (I think thats what it’s called… I’m a bit rusty.)

If you find you need more than the 9 columns, you can change your Counter MovieClip class to support dynamically adding more digits.