How to rearrange hexagons to perfectly snap to each other in Illustrator?

Question

first time user here, just created an account. I am making a board game and I'm in the printing phase. I have made some .svg hexagons to act as tiles for the game and now I need to put them on an artboard and get them printed and cut. However, I am encountering a very frustrating issue in Illustrator (CS6). I place the first hex, the second one snaps perfectly underneath it, but when I go for the third ne, to the side, to place it in between the first 2, it doesn't snap in place and is always a bit aschew.

I tried grabbing it by the anchor point and that sort of works, but apparently not all the time. I tried holding shift down and it doesn't even want to get close to the first 2 hexes. I am desperate and obviously have no clue what I'm doing. But I'm not currently in a position to pay someone to do it for me, so I'm just looking for advice.

I also read somewhere that it can't actually be done and if I try to make a grid it will always be a bit weird here and there, which sounds like bogus to me.

And here's the thing. In order to print it, I need the borders to snap perfectly in place, but also to delete one of them. Normally I'd try with 3 lines at 120 degrees from each other, but I already have the hexagons as individual graphic files, with drawings on them and everything, so that's not really an option at this point.

In conclusion, sorry for the long text, I'm panicky. I need to place a lot of hexagons on one artboard, then click on a magic button that rearranges all of them from all over the place to perfectly snap to each other and forming a grid. Can that be done? I feel like it should be really simple but I'm just missing something.

Please help and thanks in advance! ArK

Answer 1

Use smart guides. Go to View> Smart Guides and make sure it has a check mark next to it (or click on it to turn the check mark on). In my .gif I have the measurements labels enabled (this can be annoying). You can change smart guides settings by going to Illustrator> Preferences> Smart Guides. Make sure you have the Alignment Guides checkbox on.

I use the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) to select the various objects/ parts. Note that the direct select tool will select an anchor point or a line segment (line between 2 anchor points) if you click on them. It will also select several of either of those if you click and drag on them. It will select the entire object if you alt/option click anywhere on the object.

Another important step is to click and drag from an anchor point and not a line segment if you are trying to get the anchor points to snap exactly.

In my animation I selected and deleted both line segments and anchor points so there were no overlapping line segments as you requested. This may cause trouble for you, depending on how your objects were constructed as it will mess with any fill color you have in the hexagon.

It is also easier to check the actual alignment in Outline mode (View> Outline) rather than Preview mode.

Answer 2

Ok, snapping in illustrator works differently depending on version. The trick to get it consistently right no matter how old version you have is as follows.

1. Make sure you have smart guides on, gridsnapping and pixel snapping OFF, and point snapping on

   Explanation: gridsnapping overrides all other actions. Same with pixel snapping. (I dont know of a reason to ever turn pixel snapping on even if you try to draw pixel perfect) Pixel snapping is problematic in illustrator cs6 as its on by default if you have a rgb document and you need to turn it of in transformation panel.

2. Use the direct selection (white arrow) tool to do the dragging.

3. Then start dragging the component from one corver point of your tile.

4. Drag the corner to corresponding corner.

Other issues if there is a lot of stuff in your scene. And i meana lot. Then older illustrators start to prune off the snapping tree. So try to make sure the object is below the object and is not a template layer. You try to snap or use the corresponding hotkey to enable more thorough snapping.

Anyway, the reason people end in troubles with snapping is that by default there is too many snapping options on in illustrator so its very easy to snap to something you didnt intend by mistake. It takes a bit of experience to keep a eye on what actually happened.