Angular grid

[jackamus]

Is there an easy way to divide a circle into many different angles? Is there an angular/polar grid?

[Aammppaa]

Here's how I would do it…

 

• Use the Pie Tool to make your first wedge (you can use the edit boxes to type a precise angle)
• Convert to Curves (In theory you don't need to do this, but I think it is probably easier)
• Snap the Rotation Center to the point of your wedge.
• Create a duplicate (Ctrl+J)
• Type the same angle as your wedge into the rotation edit box in the transform panel.
• Now use Power Duplicate (Ctrl+J) repeatedly until the circle is complete.

[R C-R]

No angular grid that I know of but why not use pie shapes for this instead of circles, like in this Pies.afdesign example?

 

EDIT: @Aammppaa beat me to it!

[Aammppaa]

@R C-R Sorry - Really annoying when that happens isn't it!!!

 

It is a shame that the Pie angle doesn't snap to neighbouring pie sections, as that would make drawing Pies with different sized areas very straight forward, with no need to use text entry.

 

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, Aammppaa said:

Sorry - Really annoying when that happens isn't it!!!

It isn't a contest so there is nothing to be sorry about. Your reply with the animation was more informative & easier to understand than mine anyway. 

 

3 minutes ago, Aammppaa said:

It is a shame that the Pie angle doesn't snap to neighbouring pie sections...

Hmmm. They did for me -- that is how I made the file so quickly. Maybe it depends on the snapping options enabled? This is what I was using:

[Aammppaa]

I imagine you were rotating with the Move Tool, where I am imagining the angles snapping when drawing using the Pie Tool itself…

 

 

• Draw a wedge.
• Duplicate.
• Adjust the angle (with the pie tool)
• The new wedge does not snap to the original.

 

If the wedges did snap to the nodes of the previous pie, then it would make drawing a pie with sections of various sizes very straight forward. Perhaps I'll add a feature request.

[Ben]

The snapping you are talking about may seem trivial, but consider the logic that needs to be employed.  It is a special case that would need to be crafted just for snapping pie angles.  It requires a test to see if there is an equivalent pie shape to which you would want to snap - something that would require some quite involved logic.  It can be done, but this scenario is fairly niche.  It's simpler just to duplicate the pie, swap points, and drag the other point around to continue the sequence.

 

I may get around to adding further snapping for shape points at a later date, but anything that is added will have to work on generic rules - otherwise we are pouring time into solving problems for just one or two people.

[Aammppaa]

 

@Ben I didn't for one moment assume it was trivial! 

 

You solution is obviously simpler - I had completely forgotten about the Invert Angles button, so thanks for the reminder.

[jackamus]

Thanks for this. I will suggest that a Polar/angular grid be added. See attached file of a simple grid. The angles and circles can be changed as required as with other grids. Great for drawing Archimedian spirals.

Polar grid.afdesign

[R C-R]

8 minutes ago, Ben said:

 It's simpler just to duplicate the pie, swap points, and drag the other point around to continue the sequence.

I am not so sure it is always going to seem simpler from a user standpoint. For example, once the sequence is complete, editing it to change the angles where two adjacent pie wedges meet would be much simpler if the start & end angles supported snapping. But I do understand that logically this would be difficult & probably not worth the effort.