How to align objects relative to a circle in Inkscape?

Question

I need to draw a circle divided into n sectors. The sectors can be equally sized, for example, 360°/n.

My solution is based on the manual division only. I have drawn a circle and a sector; then the sector was copy-pasted n times and rotated manually:

Question: Is it possible to align the replicated sectors, for example, in a parametric coordinate system?

Answer 1

Nick!

EDIT: Sorry but I didn't know I must have more than 10 Reputation to can use more than 2 images. So I've merged some steps together.

I'll give you the way I use to divide a circle into n parts. You will use Circle Tool , the Tile Clone and the Snapping to do exactly what you want:

1º - Create a Circle and in the Circle Tool Definitions put you n number as the End parameter. 18° degrees for example.

2º - Enable the Snapping and let the options Snap Cusp Nodes and Snap an Item's Rotation Center turned on. EDIT: If you don't know how to use the Snapping Tool, I suggest you to searh for videos, tutorials, etc, about it. It's very useful. Anyway for now just let equals to the image.

3º- Drag the rotation point (the crosshair that apears when you click twice in a object using the Select And Transform Tool) of the of that piece of circle near to the sharper part of that (where the center of the complete circle will stay) and let the rotation point be attracted by the vertex.

4º - Open the Tile Clone Tool (Edit> Clone>Create Tiled Clone) and do this:

a) In the Shift options, put -100% in the into the Shift X > Per Column field. It will make each clone return to the center of the circle.

b) In the Rotation Options put your n number into the Angle>Per Colunm, in my previous example 18.

c) Choose to Clone by Rows, Colunms. Let 1 for Row and 360 divided by n for Column. Following my example, 360/18 = 20. so I'd put 20 columns.

Finally, push Create and voila!

Notice that each clone is linked to the original piece and you need select all the clones and unlink them in order to edit them, you do this with Edit>Clone>Unlink Clone or Shift+Alt+D

Now you can do what you want with your circle divided into n parts. If you have any problem , let me know.

Answer 2

There's no need to place the slices if you make them straight into the correct places and positions. One method:

1. Draw a horizontal line

2. Duplicate (Ctrl+D) and rotate 30 degrees (Object > Transform > Rotate) Repeat until you have all sectors

3. Draw a circle. Have the crossing point snapping on, hold Shift and Ctrl at the same time to get the circle starting from the wanted center. Lower the circle to bottom. Continue to step 4 or 5.

4. Select one of the lines and the circle. Goto Path > Divide to split the circle. The line vanishes, so press Ctrl+D to duplicate the next selected line to have the line available for the other side. Split the sectors apart one at the time and you are ready.

5. An alternative method is to fill the sectors one by one with the paint bucket and finally delete the lines and the circle or select the sectors and drag them all away. This creates the sectors having a stroke wide gaps. That can be useful. The gaps get filled if you select all sectors and give to them wide enough stroke.

If one tries manually to rotate a separated sector to the right position and move it to the right place, it's possible assuming the parts fit. I moved one sector away from the image 4 and manually rotated a little the separated sector. I could move the sharp head of the sector to the center. I could place the rotation center to the sharp head of the sector and rotate it until it snapped. All snaps to points were ON.

There's no easy method to place the sectors manually right for the version 5 that has the gaps.

Answer 3

Legwork, but simple

1. Create your circle, using the circle tool.
2. Move the round handles holding Ctrl to get a 30° sector. (Keep the mouse outside the circle to get a sector and not a segment.)
3. Duplicate the sector.
4. Move both round handles by 30° in a direction of your choice (holding Ctrl again).
5. Unless finished, go to step 3.

If you need angles that are not captured by holding Ctrl, you can enter them manually in the top bar.

Elegant, but more complex

1. Create your circle, using the circle tool.
2. Move the round handles holding Ctrl to get a 30° sector. (Keep the mouse outside the circle to get a sector and not a segment.) Alternatively, enter the desired angle manually.
3. Duplicate the sector.
4. Rotate by 180°.
5. Place it such that the points touch (either by using snapping or the alignment tools).
6. Group both sectors.
7. Duplicate.
8. Object → Transform → Rotate by 30°.
9. Unless finished, go to step 7.