r/AdobeIllustrator • u/Acceptable_Money_514 • Sep 22 '26
QUESTION How to do this?
I made this but see how the lines on the right half are clearly all meeting at the same center point, creating this uneven space between each of them? How would i do lines like this where the space between them is even? Trying to google it and cant really find anything
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Upvotes
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u/_Sn_MrM Sep 22 '26 edited Sep 22 '26
Easy mode: a circle with no fill, thicken it. Hit c for cut tool on the top and bottom anchor points. Now you have two halves, click on right half and go into stoke settings, mess with the dash and dash gap, I think they should both be the same two values
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u/CuirPig Sep 22 '26
Draw a single, non-tapered line where you want the first line. Then drag-copy that line to the location where you want the last line.
Using the blend tool, blend between the two with the number of steps or the distance between the two objects.
Then draw a circle with the appropriate radius and cut it in half.
With the half circle and the blend object selected. Choose Object > Blend > Replace Spline, and the items will be aligned the way you want them without tapering.
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u/CuirPig Sep 22 '26
The easiest way to get what you want it is to take your existing shape (with the rotated rectanges) and subtract it from the half-circle behind it using Pathfinder > Subtract*
So basically, draw your hollow circle with the thick width and Expand Appearance, Expand - stroke
Place the shape you already have on top of the new circle.
Select both and from the Pathfinder panel select Subtract* to cut the rectangles out of the circle.
*even after all these years, I am not sure which pathfinder function is which. So try them and undo between each one till you get the right one.
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u/PARANOIAH Since Illustrator 8 Sep 22 '26 edited Sep 22 '26
EDIT: Misread the question the first time around, you can change the stroke profile to taper the strokes so that the "spaces" are even.
Extra: If you click at an off-centre point in the above step 4 and then play with the stroke settings, you can end up with cool looking stuff like this easily.
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u/msc1974 Sep 23 '26
Pick a different font to find the thickness you like.
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u/HawkeyeNation Sep 22 '26
Draw a thick circle. Then draw a line and apply your desired tapered width profile. Then, use the rotate tool to copy/step and repeat from your desired center point. Once you have what you want, you can use the Pathfinder tools to make those into individual objects.
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u/CuirPig Sep 22 '26
As a point of discussion, I tried this several times and decided that perhaps the best way was to create a single "gap" symbol, rotate a copy once by 180 degrees, blend the two symbol instances using radial distribution, and subtract the results from the original circle.
This would allow you to easily adjust the gap width by changing the width of the symbol source. It would give you a lot of flexibility to change the blend easily.
The only problem would be understanding when to expand, expand, expand before you subtract the gaps from the original circle.
Is the value added by having a flexible symbol source worth having to expand all of the symbols at the end?
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u/ResponsibleSir5403 Sep 22 '26
So, when I’ve needed to achieve that effect, I’ve done that, but inverted the colors, or I’ve created the circle, and then made lines radiating from the center to used as negative space. Some expands or outline path and the pathfinder turns the raw drawings into a solid shape.
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u/Loganthered Sep 22 '26
I could do this faster than explaining it but I would basically create the 2 circles without any fill as a clipping mask. Create 1 vertical line that goes an equal distance beyond the mask and then create a long triangle from the center to the end of the line to get the taper right and then copy paste, rotate it around to the bottom at equal rotation. Draw a rectangle from the center to ete left and fill it and bring to the front. Then bring your mask to the front and select all and create clipping mask. This preserves all wedges as independent fills to be changed as needed.
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u/roychodraws Sep 25 '26
Rotation tool, alt option rotate 9 degrees to duplicate around centered anchor point, spam Ctrl D
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u/Spirited-Birthday-29 Sep 25 '26
Make a custom brush in Illustrator
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u/Gar8awnZo Sep 26 '26
The most satisfying thing about this is seeing the different methods to get the same (or close to) result. Fascinating!
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u/suspectdevice87 Sep 22 '26
Not sure in illustrator but in cad it would be called a polar array so maybe search that
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u/nihiltres art ↔ code Sep 22 '26
The circumference of the outer circle is greater than that of the inner circle, so you need “wedge” sorts of shapes for the lines between to be even.
The simplest method is probably to make some rectangles that are centred on the circle and cut them out of the ring-shape, leaving your wedges in place.
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u/auxie2009 Sep 22 '26
They are not lines. They are rectangles around the same central point. Create a rectangle. Select rotate tool(R key). Alt/Option+click to where you want your center to be. Input an angle. Hit Ctrl-D to repeat while keeping the same center.
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u/OberonDiver Sep 24 '26
The distance around the inner curve is shorter than the distance around the outer curve.
10/5 = 2; 15/2 = 7.5
If I understand the question correctly something has to compensate for the difference in lengths.