Drawing polygons


    The Polygon tool creates an object with a specified number of sides of equal length, each side being the same distance from the center of the object. There are two ways to draw with the Polygon tool: you can drag to draw the polygon directly on the artboard or click to specify properties in a dialog box.

    When you create an object with the Polygon tool, a center point appears in the object. You can use this point to drag the object or to align the object with other elements in your artwork. The center point can be made visible or invisible, but it cannot be deleted.

To draw a polygon by dragging:

  1. Select the Polygon tool Polygon tool .
  2. Position the pointer at the center of the polygon you want to create, and drag until the polygon is the desired size.
  3. You can press any of the following to get specific results as you drag:

    • Shift to constrain the tool to multiples of 45° or to the angle specified in the Constrain Angle text box in the General Preferences dialog box.
    • The spacebar to move the polygon.
    • The Up Arrow key or Down Arrow key to add or delete sides to the polygon.
    • Drag the pointer in an arc to rotate the polygon.

To draw a polygon by specifying dimensions:

  1. Select the Polygon tool.
  2. Click where you want the center of the polygon to be.
  3. Set either or both of the following options in the dialog box, and click OK:
    • Radius to specify the distance from the center point to each line's endpoint.
    • Sides to specify the number of sides in the polygon.

    Note: By default, the Polygon dialog box displays the dimensions of the last polygon you drew. The unit of measure is determined by the setting in the Document Setup or Units & Display Performance Preferences dialog box.

To display or hide the center points:

  1. Choose Window > Attributes.
  2. In the Attributes palette, click either the Show Center button Show Center button or the Don't Show Center button Don't Show Center button .