Make a Hex Jig
I made a little jig out of index cards to make a hex map, and I figured other people might benefit from the experience. Maybe you don’t have hex paper, maybe you want lines you can erase as needed, maybe you want customizability In regards to size. Hopefully you’re making a Zungeon or some other sweet project, and maybe just drawing freehand on notebook paper is too punk rock for you.
Materials
You’ll need 3 index cards, a pencil, a glue stick or other paper glue, a heavy book or other flat weight, scissors, and a ruler. If you have a protractor or some other way of measuring degrees of a circle that will help, but isn’t necessary.
Process
Step 1.
Laminate your index cards, this will provide structure. On a piece of scratch paper cover 1 side of an index card lightly with glue, line up a second card and stick them together, mushing them around until the corners line up. Repeat with the third card. Wipe off any excess glue, place the laminated cards in your folded piece of scratch paper, and press them under your book.
Step 2.
Mark 120 degrees. You can find this angle a number of ways. Start with a straight line over 2” long parallel to a long edge of the card maybe a third up from the bottom.
Use a protractor centered at the right edge of your line, mark a point at 60 degrees, draw a line connecting the two points.
Make a hash mark at the end of your line, extend the line 2 cm. Make another 3.5cm line at a right angle up from this. Connect your hash mark to the top of the 3.5cm line. A 7/4 rise over run is ~60 degrees.
- If you have a speed square: hold your card at the bottom of the square, hold your ruler at an angle connecting pivot and 60 degrees, draw a line along the edge of the ruler. Make sure your other line is perfectly parallel with the bottom edge of the card!
Step 3.
Cut out the waste inside your 120 degree angle. Make some hash marks at reasonable lengths, I did ½ inches. Keep the waste! It has the inverse angle of your jig, so it’s useful as a backup.
Step 4.
Draw some hexes!
Additional hexagon math:
The length of a side a = rc = 1
The width of the hexagon w = 2a = 2
The height of the hexagon h = √3*a ≈ 1.73 (easily rounded up to 1.75)
The angle V = 120°
