Creating nested grids in Illustrator

by

I’m currently using Illustrator and Photoshop CS6 and my goal is to create a UI for a Battleship game. I have my eyes on this to use as a reference:

Photoshop cannot do much vector and grid work so I’m at the Illustrator step right now, I will need Photoshop in the future for styles and effects. Currently, I have the main grid setup here:

I also start on the “nested” grid, but the way I’m doing it now is quite tedious, I’m making the nested 2×2 grid by hand via copy paste. Not only does this take long but its also not living up to be like the reference picture:

Can I get some suggestions or tips on how to make my grid look more like the one in the link above?

Answer

Here’s a really simple way of doing this.

  1. Create a single square of your grid, including the nested grid
  2. Select this square and group it by hitting Command+G
  3. Make sure Smart Guides art turned on by hitting Command+U
  4. Now, with this group selected, hold down Shift and drag your shape sideways until it ‘clicks’ into the next shape
  5. Repeat this step with the new shape by hitting Command+D until you have a complete row of your grid
  6. Now select this entire row, and repeat steps 4 and 5 but this time down the page

This method will result in a grid made up of matching squares, which you may find is a bit over-wrought for what you need. A simpler way of creating your grid is to use criss-crossing lines. To do this:

  1. Draw one line
  2. Select it, hold Shift and drag it sideways to create the next gridline
  3. Select this gridline and, on the Stroke panel, change it to a dashed line
  4. Select both gridlines and, holding Shift, drag them to the side to make copies. Hit Command+D a few times to repeat this step.
  5. Now select all of your gridlines and, on the Align panel, click Horizontal Distribute Space
  6. Select all of your gridlines and hit Command+G to group them
  7. Go Object > Transform > Rotate and click Copy (not OK) to create a copy of the group rotated 90 degrees
  8. Select both groups of lines and using the Align panel, centre them horizontally and vertically

Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Enkrypton , Answer Author : Alex

Leave a Comment