This article shows you how to use the Arc Tool in Illustrator. It explains two methods for drawing accurate circular arcs, and demonstrates how to draw a full circle using the Arc Tool.

You can find the Arc Tool in the Tools panel. You can use it in two ways. After selecting the tool, click anywhere on the artboard to open the Arc Options dialog box. Or simply click and drag on the artboard to draw an arc freely. The tool draws only one quarter of a circle at a time.

Now, let’s look at the first method.

Using the arc segment tool dialog box

The arc options panel consists of several sub-sections. These are: dimensioning, arc starting point (1), whether or not a closed shape, arc direction (2) and slope amount.

All possible arc drawing directions are shown below for 100 by 100 quarter circle. Four colored small squares specify where the arc is starting. For example, if the X-axis direction is selected from the panel as the upper left starting point, The arc is indicated by the black color that is drawn down from the clicked point and to the right on the X-axis.

Now let’s see, for example, what options should be used to draw a complete circle with arcs.

1. The top-right starting point and Y-axis for direction
2. The top-left starting point and X-axis for direction
3. The bottom-left starting point and Y-axis for direction
4. The bottom-right starting point and X-axis for direction

If all quarters are selected and CTL + J is hit, the open arc ends are joined together. Now it is time to see  the second method

Drawing arc on the fly

After selecting the Arc Tool from the Tools panel, you can draw directly without opening the Arc Options dialog box. Just click and hold the left mouse button to start drawing. While drawing, you can use keyboard shortcuts to control the same options that appear in the panel.

For example, press the F key after you start drawing to flip the arc’s direction along the X or Y axis. Press F again to switch it back.

Hold down the Shift key while drawing to create a perfect quarter circle — meaning both endpoints of the arc are equally distant from the center. Use the Up and Down Arrow keys to adjust the curvature of the arc and change this balance.

The following animation illustrates how to draw a circle with arcs using on the fly drawing technique.

Smart Guides would help to align your drawing. If not open hit CTRL + U

I hope it has been helpful. Do not forget to share it if you like.

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Create Layers

The bottom layer will be your guide layer. Therefore named it as “Guides”. The other layer names refer to how many copies of the object created. “odd 12” means to make 11 copies of the object. “Even 12” means to reflect the object and make 11 copies of them. At this time these are just names. After applying effects to layers, objects created in the corresponding layer will be either circularly copied or reflected and copied.

Create a Guide

To create guides, you need to show up your ruler first. Hit CTRL/CMD + R on the keyboard. And then, Left Mouse in the ruler area. Drag the guide and drop it to the artboard.

Copy Guides

Select the guide you create, Right-click and choose Transform > Rotate. Type 30 degrees (360 degree / 12 section). Hit Copy.

Prepare Odd 12 layer for mandala art

Switch to Odd 12 layer from the layers panel. Go to the Ellipse (L) tool Draw a perfect circle using the left mouse click and ALT/OPTION + SHIFT key. Make it as bigger as your artboard. Apply no fill and no stroke to this circle. Align it vertically and horizontally centered.

Add effect to a layer

Click Target Icon (small circle) next to the layer name as shown in the figure below. Select Menu item Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform. Make 11 copies and rotate 30 degrees. Hit ok. Don’t forget to lock the circle guide before you create an object as shown in the figure below. Make sure Guides Layer also locked. this will make easier to select objects only.

Create your first object

The layer is now ready for drawing. Draw any simple shape you wish in the Odd 12 layer. This will automatically make 11 copies of the object whatever you draw it in this layer

Congratulations. great job. Now let’s copy this layer’s effect to other layers.

To copy the effect from “odd 12” layer to “even 12” layer

• click Odd 12 Layer, unlock the circle guide
• Left-click target icon of Odd 12 with ALT/OPTION key on the keyboard.
• Hold down the ALT/OPTION key and move the effect to another layer
• You also need to copy the circle guide to another layer.
• Click the circle guide on the layers panel
• hold down ALT/OPTION key with the left mouse click, copy to the destination
• Once you copy the effect and circle, switch to another layer ( even 12) by clicking on the layer name
• Open appearance panel
• you should see the copied effect in the Appearance panel
• Now you can modify the effect or add a new effect

To add a new effect

• Click Target Icon (small circle) again next to the layer name.
• Go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform.
• make 1 copy and click reflect x checkbox

When you finish modification, don’t forget to lock the circle guide before drawing. Now you should see two effects in the Appearance panel for the “even 12” layer. The first effect will create a reflected copy of the object. and the second one will create 11 copies.

As a result, when all layers are set up and if you draw something into any selected layer, Layers’ effects will automatically be applied to your objects.

If you think the steps are confusing, you can watch the video to see how the process is done. The original language of YouTube Video is English. Turkish Subtitles are available. Enjoy!.

https://youtu.be/oZolepHlGig

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