How do I make a ray effect in Illustrator?

Question

What I've been doing is copied each stroke, selecting the end anchor point and moving it using the arrow keys:

Is there an easier way to do the following "semi-circle ray effect" in Illustrator?

Answer 1

A quick and easy way... use a Transform effect (Effect → Distort & Transform → Transform...) on a single line, setting an appropriate number of copies and rotation angle^*. Set the transform origin to the edge which you want to be the center of the "ray"...

^*Quick tip: you can do basic math in the angle input; so if you want 10 rays over 180 degrees, you input 180/10, and it will set the correct angle for you.

If you want varying line lengths you can create a single line for each different length with a Transform effect on each, adjusting the rotation angle and number of copies as needed...

Answer 2

Just a few simple rotate and duplicate steps. Working from the center point and rotating around it, starting with a line segment on either the left or right.

1. The longest line would be drawn as a horizontal then rotated and duplicated at 45° four times. For precision, make the two dots on the first line, then delete the extra for the two diagonals.
   
2. The medium length line would be drawn horizontally then rotated 22.5° to get it in the first position. Then rotate and dupe 45° three more times for the remainders.
   
3. The shortest line would again be drawn horizontally, then rotated 11.25° to it's first position. Rotate and dupe at 22.5° seven more times for the rest.
   

Done.