Here are a set of steps that will help you to create a custom hex grid. The instructions are for Adobe Illustrator CS6, but I suspect that they work fine back to CS4.
- Start a new 8.5″ x 11″ document with landscape orientation
- Select the polygon tool and click on the page. Set the tool to .3” radius and 6 points.
- Place the newly created hexagon in the upper left-hand corner of the artboard
- With the hexagon shape selected, click on EFFECT → DISTORT & TRANSFORM → TRANSFORM
- Set Preview to ON
- Set Horizontal move to .45”
- Set Vertical move to .26”
- Enable REFLECT X
- Tell it to create 32 copies (takes us off the bottom of page)
- Click on OK
- Deselect and reselect the first hexagon (only the first can be selected)
- With the hexagon shape selected, click on EFFECT → DISTORT & TRANSFORM → TRANSFORM
- If necessary, click “Apply New Effect” button
- Turn on the preview
- Set the Horizontal move to .9”
- Set the number of copies to 12
- Click on OK
- (Make your changes to line thickness / style as you wish – last chance to do it uniformly.)
- With the hexagon selected, set the fill color to none (transparent)
- Select OBJECT → Expand…
- Select OBJECT → Path → Outline Stroke
- With all of the objects still selected (CTRL-A if they are not), Select WINDOW → Pathfinder and click on Unite (the first option)
Once you have the basic components, you can easily create custom mapping sheets with the hex-grid scaled to match your needs. These instructions were gleaned from a video over at layersmagazine.com.
