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January 28, 2018
Question

Irregular Hexagon (and other) shapes?

  • January 28, 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 4305 views

I am trying to generate an irregular hexagon in photoshop.


One side is 4cm
two sides are 1cm.
two sides are 2.6cm
and the last side is 3cm

Is there a way to easily change the side lengths of a hexagon in photoshop?

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    4 replies

    davescm
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    January 28, 2018

    Make a construction out of circular shapes with an additional line from the centre to the edge

    You can size, rotate and position these as required (as pixxxel schubser said - you need angles to narrow it down and can enter them into the options bar when you transform rotate)

    Then use the pen tool to create a new shape over the centres

    Finally switch off visibility of the construction circles

    Dave

    Norman Sanders
    Legend
    January 28, 2018

    Converting it to a shape should provide some flexibility

    pixxxelschubser
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    January 28, 2018

    Hi JessicaGoodlin​,

    like Mike said before …

    But one note:

    you have to define one angle as minimum. Otherwise you have hundreds of possibilities to create your hexagon. (One angle should restrict this to less than 10 options.)

    Trevor.Dennis
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    January 28, 2018

    https://forums.adobe.com/people/pixxxel+schubser  wrote

    Hi JessicaGoodlin ,

    like Mike said before …

    But one note:

    you have to define one angle as minimum. Otherwise you have hundreds of possibilities to create your hexagon. (One angle should restrict this to less than 10 options.)

    If you assume that the polygon will be symmetrical.  Using the 120° from a standard hexagon as the base works well, but you'd definitely need more information than just the sides.  Minimum, or maximum possible area/volume for instance, or as you say, a couple of angles.

    [EDIT] Hah!  I can immediately see I made the constructing rectangle half what it should be!

    Trevor.Dennis
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    January 28, 2018

    Michael J. Hoffman
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    January 28, 2018

    Hi Jessica,

    No, there's no way to create irregular polygon sides in Photoshop using the polygon shape tool. You'll have to construct the shape geometrically the old fashioned way.

    Note that if you require very price coordinates, you can create horizontal and vertical guides and then snap to them when drawing.

    View > New Guide...

    Horizontal or Vertical

    Use "cm" or "mm" instead of "px" to place it in a numeric position.

    Mike