adobe illustrator - How to make a hexagonal grid?

I'm trying to make a hexagonal grid, I want each hexagon to be it's own shape, with no extra paths.

I've tried a bunch of different methods to create a hexagon grid, something like this (where each hexagon is it's own shape/path):

^{[The artifacts you see now are merely a rendering issue in Illustrator, once I export it, it looks better.]}

I've tried creating the shape and manually cloning and placing it while using smart guides, which is extremely hard to align properly.

I can get one side aligned easily, just not the other:

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Using Transform Effect is also quite difficult, since I don't know how I can get the exact values of (the different) distances that they need to be moved. (It's probably some mathematical equation @joojaa)

Answer

Using Transform Effects isn't that hard; you just need three measurements....

The measurements are:

• X1: Width


• X2: 1/2 Width


• Y2: 3/4 Height

You then need two* Transform Effects...

• 
  
  

  The first set to move horizontally by X1 (with as many copies as needed)

  
  


• 
  

  The second set to move horizontally by X2 and vertically by Y2 (again with a number of copies)...

  
  

• Object → Expand Appearance...


• Done

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* Using three (total) Transform effects gives you a diagonal field since you're transforming two axis at once; you can create a square field by using three Transform effects (you should be able to figure out the needed transformations from the following):

You create the first and then the second, but you only create 1 copy in the second step.

Then for transform effect 3, you move vertically by 2 x (Y2) and then a number of copies.