Pattern in Illustrator has vertical lines when expanding

Question

I made a hexagonal pattern, when I expand it and use the Crop Pathfinding tool, it created vertical lines inside my pattern, breaking it up into smaller pieces (which is not what I want).

Is there a way to expand my pattern so I can color the individual pieces, while keeping my original pattern shape?

Steps

• Create a square and apply the pattern
• Object -> Expand
• Pathfinder -> Crop

Answer 1

You could use the Shape Builder tool to merge the pieces into hexagons.

Example: