2

I am trying to create a sphere of hexagons. Followed the accepted answer from this question and it get's me 90% of the way.

enter image description here

As you can see what I got is a sphere made up of a bunch of randomly shaped hexagons. What I want is for the hexagons to all be evenly spaced, the same size etc. In other words every face of the sphere should be identical to every other face in the sphere? I can't imagine it's really possible to get everything exact manually. Is there another way?

Community
  • 1
ryandlf
  • 121
  • 2
  • Are you sure it is mathematically possible? Wouldn't it be another Platonic Solid? – Carlo Jul 25 '16 at 20:01
  • Honestly...I have no idea. I guess it if wasn't something that was possible i'd settle for pretty darn close but as you can see in my image some of the faces are just grossly misshapen. – ryandlf Jul 25 '16 at 20:14
  • 1
    That would not be a big problem, you can always run "smooth vertex" several times to distribute the difference. I think the main problem is the presence of pentagons here and there. – Carlo Jul 25 '16 at 20:20
  • 2
    As stated in this answer and it's links it's not possible to create a sphere out of hexagons without imperfections or pentagons. But if you're okay with imperfections you can fiddle around with the 'Circle' tool (simply hit space and type in circle) and it's influence value to make at least single faces (preferably the worst looking) look better. – palkonimo Jul 25 '16 at 20:32
  • 1
    Curiously I've seen this question come up recently elsewhere (see here https://plus.google.com/101076135528517730950/posts/FEGX3nGVQLM), and I think the consensus is that is not mathematically possible. It has nothing to do with Blender limitations, the only platonic solid is the icosahedron (lowest subdivision of the icosphere) any subsequent subdivisions are no longer platonic solids unfortunately. You will have to do with an approximation. – Duarte Farrajota Ramos Jul 25 '16 at 20:41
  • Great links everyone. I guess I hadn't thought it through enough. – ryandlf Jul 25 '16 at 20:52
  • Quick thought. Is it possible to make a non perfect spherical shape of hexagons in blender easily? Or would I have to separate and manually adjust everything? Ya it wouldn't be an actual sphere but i'm really just going for a round shape. The actual faces are more important. – ryandlf Jul 25 '16 at 21:24
  • 1
    You can model any mesh and use the Cast modifier to deform it into a sphere, so you can make any shape based on hexagons and bend it into a sphere like shape – Duarte Farrajota Ramos Jul 25 '16 at 22:52

1 Answers1

4

As stated by several commenters, it is not possible to construct a regular convex polyhedron from hexagons.

However, you can make your 'sphere' more regular by scaling the pentagons down.

Click Select, Select all by Trait, Select Faces by Sides, 5. Then, with the Pivot Point set to Individual Origins, scale down until the surrounding hexagons look more regular.

The result is not perfect but is an improvement.

enter image description here

Xtremity
  • 2,405
  • 1
  • 12
  • 18