Make sure the hinge is tight so it doesn’t slip while drawing. Also make sure the pencil is securely in its holder so it also doesn’t move while drawing. This first circle is the main circle that you will be dividing.
The second circle should overlap with the first circle and the edge should cross through the center of the first circle. If the distance between the needle and the pencil changes at all, the circle will not be divided equally.
Again, keep the compass at the same distance for every circle you draw. At this point you should have three overlapping circles. You should notice that the two outer circles overlap with the center of the first main circle.
You are halfway done with drawing circles.
The inside of your original circle should now look like a 6 petaled flower.
This method works well if you are trying to cut a pie or a cake.
Get as close to three equal pieces as possible. Again, this method is just an approximation.
This method is not exact, but is an easy way to divide the circle into six equal parts by eye.
To see the tools nested underneath the Line Segment, click and hold on the Line Segment tool until a window opens with more options. Click on the Polar Grid tool to activate it.
While dragging, adjust the size of the circle by dragging in and out until you reach the desired size. Hold ⇧ Shift to snap to a perfect circle. Keep holding ⇧ Shift and don’t release the mouse click until you finish the next step.
When the circle is the size you want and divided into 6 equal parts, you can let go of the mouse. If you let go of the mouse too early, there is an alternative method: Keep the Polar Grid tool active (don’t click back to the black arrow) and click on any whitespace in your document. An options menu will pop up and you can set the number of divisions to 6 and remove the concentric dividers by setting that option to 0.
Release the click on the mouse and then release ⇧ Shift to make a perfect circle.
If the guides don’t get properly placed the first time, you can click on them again and drag them into place.
Click on the Polygon Frame tool to make it active. It will now be the icon showing on the toolbar.
Don’t release ⇧ Shift until after you let go of the mouse click. This will ensure that you have made a perfect equilateral triangle.
The right side of the triangle should hang outside the circle with the bottom and left side of the triangle intersecting the circle.
This wedge is one-sixth of the circle.
Align this second wedge next to the first wedge. You will start to see the circle forming.
Align each wedge next to the previous one until you have a perfect circle divided into 6 equal parts.
