I would very much appreciate any advice on the best way to divide a circle into three equal segments, such as the one that can be seen here: <http://www.visualfractions.com/EnterCircle.html>. I need to divide the circle with Object > Path > Divide objects below.

Thanks!

Daniel,

You can:

1. Create a straight path at least as long as the radius starting at 0,0;
2. Select (one of) the Reference Point(s) in the Transform Palette yielding 0,0;
3. Ctrl+C and Ctrl+F and select 120 degrees, still in the Tranform Palette;
4. Repeat 2 and 3;
5. Create the circle and move the centre to 0,0;
6. Select all, Pathfinder>Divide, and Control+Shift+G to Ungroup.

This is the Divide a Circle into Thirdendeals Thread.

Just an alternate method for Jacob's steps 2-4: use Effect | Distort & Transform | Transform. That dialog enables you to select the anchor and the two copies needed in one swell foop.

You do need to expand appearance before proceeding to step 5.

Jacob,

Thank you very much for your answer, but I'm afraid I can't follow it. Could you be a bit more specific? Let's say I want to create a circle with a radius of 30 mm.

Ok... so I...

1. Create a straight path (using the pen tool?) of 30 mm starting at 0,0 (from 0,0 to 0,30).
2. Select the 0,0 (with the direct selection tool?) extreme of the straight path (only one of the two extremes of the line is 0,0)
3. Then I'm lost

Thanks for your patience!

Daniel

Harron and Jacob,

I'm afraid you're both asuming I have a good command of Illustrator. But that's not the case (I come from the PhotoShop realm, and am not very used to working with vectors). And I just need to make a circle divided into three identical segments, each of them with a different color, such as you would see in a pie chart with 33,33% for each of the three segments.

I would very much appreciate a little more detailed step by step explanation from any of you.

Thanks a lot!

Daniel

<http://www.bugge.com/Family-and-friends/Illy/Images/thirdendeal.gif>

I switched to points to get the GIF nice (85.04 pt corresponds to 30 mm).

I cannot believe it. I followed Jacob's instructions over and over until I finally achieved it (had to figure out a couple of things that were not that clear to me at the beginning).

Thanks a lot to both of you!!!

BTW... What does Ctrl*F do exactly?

Daniel

Daniel:

Another simpler method-

Select the Polar Grid Tool (mouse down on the line tool and pick the right most button.

Click the artboard and enter equal W and H, 0 Concentric Dividers, 3 radial dividers, OK, and then either--

A- Use the Live Paint Tool to fill the segments

B- Use Pathfinder Palette Divide to break the circle up into separate pieces.

steve

Much better!