Subdivide hexagon surface into equilateral triangles

Question

I'm not very experienced with Blender and I'm looking for a way to subdivide a hexagonal face into triangles. Basically I want to turn this:

into this:

while having the ability to control the subdivision level.

I know I could build the hexagon by hand, triangle by triangle, but perhaps there's a quicker way?

Answer 1

You first have to subdivide your hexagon once by hand, you can do subsequent steps non-destructively using modifiers.

1. Poke the faces of your NGON hexagon from the menu Faces > Poke Faces (press Alt + P on Blender versions pre 2.69)
2. Eliminate every other radial edge so you end up with three quads
3. Add a Subdivide modifier set to Simple
4. Then add a Triangulate modifier
5. Adjust the subdivision level through the Subdivide modifier

Answer 2

It depends from the way you have made the base hexagon : the key point is to set its center.

If you start from a circle with 6 edges then

1. extrude E, then
2. scale 0 S,0 and
3. remove all doubles, then
4. you can subdivide as you want (here twice in 3).