Circle of circles in a circle......

[Douglas25015478h4ub]

Hi,

I need to create the diagram below. I'm using Illustrator 26.3.1 (64 bit). I need a circle of 6 circles inside a circle of 12 circles inside a circle of 18 circle insode a circle of 24 circles inside a circle of 30 circles. I've created this using Rotate option but it's not exact. My circles need to be 2.54cm and the spacing needs to be exact and consistent. Can anyone help me with a formula for calculating the sizes of the inner circles and the angle to rotate each inner circle please?

Thank you.

[Jacob Bugge]

Douglas,

This key statement is a bit woolly: My circles need to be 2.54cm and the spacing needs to be exact and consistent.

Also, the everything depends on the overall appearance, unless you wish all five circles of small circles to have a circle at the very top or something similar.

Can you elaborate?

[Douglas25015478h4ub]

Thank you for taking the time to reply Jacob. Take care.

[Jacob Bugge]

The very same to you, Douglas.

Now you can enjoy this as a true holiday, given the solution by Femke..

[femkeblanco · Accepted solution]

This is based on a gap of one fifth of the diameter of the circles.  You can try changing the values of the variables in the first five lines of the script. 

var doc = app.activeDocument;
var n = 5;  // number of "parent" circles
var f = 28.346;  // cm to points
var d = 2.54 * f;  // diameter
var g = d / 5;  // gap
var r = d + g;
var m = 0;
var x = doc.width / 2;
var y = - doc.height / 2;
var circle = doc.pathItems.ellipse(y + d / 2, x - d / 2, d, d);
for (var i = 0; i < n; i++) {
    m += 6;
    var polygon = doc.pathItems.polygon(x, y, r, m);
    if (i % 2) {
        polygon.rotate((360 / m) / 2);
    }
    for (var j = 0; j < polygon.pathPoints.length; j++) {
        var top = polygon.pathPoints[j].anchor[1] + d / 2;
        var left = polygon.pathPoints[j].anchor[0] - d / 2;
        var circle = doc.pathItems.ellipse(top, left, d, d);
    }
    polygon.remove();
    r += d + g;
}

[Douglas25015478h4ub]

Hi femkeblanco! This is awesome.....exactly what I need thank you so much for your help. Take care and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

[Kurt Gold]

That's a very good approach, Femke.

Another way (just for fun): A bumpy action that may be at least a bit entertaining.

Circle Array 1

Instructions:

- Download and unzip the file.
- Open the Illustrator file circle_array_001.ai
- In the Actions palette, import the action set circle_array_1.aia
- Run the action.