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thes4755864
Inspiring
October 7, 2021
Question

How can I create a block graph (square) in Illustrator?

  • October 7, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 764 views

Apologies if I'm not asking this exactly right, but I've searched and can't find the right keywords.  I want to create a series of graphs that are shaped like a square, but with blocks inside in different proportions adding up to 100%.  So for instance, if my "columns" (blocks) were 50%, 25%, and 25%, I could have a square with a vertical line at the midpoint, then cut one half in identical pieces, so there are 2 small stacked squares, and one identically sized rectangle.

It's easy if it's just 3 blocks, but for more complex data it's much harder.  Obviously there are other ways to represent this but my boss has requested that it look like this.  Each graph will have 6 or 7 different items.

Can someone tell me what the options are?  Is there any existing tool for doing this in Ai? 

Thank you in advance for your suggestions and help.

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2 replies

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
October 7, 2021

You can't do that in Illustrator easily. It could be possible that you can abuse the chart function in  a workflow to get there, but probably other tools get you there quicker, when they have exactly that chart template and can export to vector files.

thes4755864
Inspiring
October 8, 2021

Thank you for the info.  I'll look elsewhere. 

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
October 8, 2021

Is it this one?

 

That would be a treemap and can be created in MS Excel. Probably also in OpenOffice.

If you don't apply any shaded styles to it, but leave it as flat as even possible, you can export it as a PDF and then import it in Illustrator and it will be paths and then you can style it.

thes4755864
Inspiring
October 7, 2021

This links to what I'm sort of trying to do: 

Link of a "block" graph is here. 

Met0
Inspiring
October 7, 2021

I have no idea what information that is supposed to be making clearer, but all it is is boxes, seems pretty easy to recreate - draw a box, copy, paste in place, transform with %, recolor, voila, repeat...

thes4755864
Inspiring
October 8, 2021

I didn't ask to make the chart that way @Met0, just trying to create it as was requested.  I don't know if you understand that the hard part is in creating a box that is 7% of the overall box area, 31% of the total box area, 59%...and so on.  All the boxes have to add up like perfect puzzle pieces into a square.  I don't think it's as easy as you think, but if I'm missing something, please (this is why I asked the question in a forum) could you clarify your "draw, copy, paste" process so that it is doable by others?  As written above, it's saying, "Don't do the chart that way" and "It's easy" (without sufficient info to actually demonstrate the ease.)  Not trying to be snarky, if you've got a good way to do this as described, please share.