Divide a line into equal sections

[noldo9]

I haven't been able to find anything on this. Please point me to a link if I missed it somewhere. How can I divide a line into equal segments in Illustrator? This is computer software, right? Shouldn't a computer be able to figure how to segment an arbitrary line? I tried turning the line into a sliced object and dividing that, but it didn't seem to work. Pathfinder only works on two or more objects. What have I missed? Am I just being really dense? (don't answer that)

Ideas?

[Artstep]

Wow, I cannot how much I pay for a software that can't divide a curve into segments 12 years on..... There's shameless and then there's Adobe, in a league of their own - there are countries that can launch nukes in fewer steps than this

[Harry Hood 95]

Use the ALIGN TOOL is the FASTEST and EASIEST way I've found to divide a straight line into any number of segments: 

0.) First of all, turn on smartguides (ctrl + U) this lets you drag things around and snap to Horiz / Vert / midpoints super easily. (These should just always be on, in my opinion)

1.) Draw the line you want to divide. (Let's call this the working line)

2.) Draw another, shorter line perpendicular to the one you want to divide (Let's call it a construction line)

3.) Grab the construction line by it's midpoint and drag it to the start point of the working line.

4.) With Construction line (only) selected, Alt drag it by midpoint again to the end point of  your working line. Now you have  what we can call the "border lines" on either end of your working line.

5.) Decide how many segments you want (Minor maths here!)-- you will need one less dividing line than the number of segments you want. For 3 segments, you'll need 2 dividers; for 7 segments you'll need 6 dividers, and so on... Copy one of your borderlines "anywhere" onto your working line, here's how: (5a.) I like to keep them centerered on their midpoints for visual neatness. (5b.) Alt drag a borderline by it's midpoint again to the midpoint of your working line. (5c.) Copy / Paste the number of dividers you need based on number of segments you want. It's easiest to use "Paste in front" (ctrl + F)

6) Now you should have one long(er) working line to be divided, a borderline at either end of it (exactly intersecting the end points of working line at 90 degrees) and however many divider lines stacked on top of each other at the midpoint of the line to be divided into equal segments.

7) Select ONLY the borderlines and divider lines and go to the ALIGN tool. Choose distribute based on orientation of line to be divided (horizontal or vertical). Now the dividers are equally distributed along your working line.

8) Select working line and dividing line then PATHFINDER. Line will be chopped up into equal segments!

In summary: Illustrator can and should have a "divide" command similar to AutoCAD where you can select a line, activate "divide" command then enter the number of segments and it then evenly marks that many segments along the line. 

[Monika Gause]

You might want to read page 1 of this thread, because your steps are not the simplest method.