Arranging objects radially by simultaneously moving and rotating them?

Question

Could anyone advise how to arrange a large number of symbol instances radially in a very specific way. Lets say we place the first symbol instance on the page, this would be the center of the pattern and reference point for rotation. Then we duplicate it by offsetting its first copy some distance aside.
The third one and all subsequent copies must be:
1.rotated to a specific angle relative to the previous one, with the first central object as the reference point.
2.offset aside further by an increased distance relative to the previous one.
e.g. conditions: rotation angle = 17°,  offset = 1 cm, offset increment = 0,1cm
- 1st copy is 1 cm away from the center, rotation is 0°
- 2nd copy is 2,1 cm away from the center, rotation is 17°
- 3rd copy is 3,2 cm away from the center, rotation is 34°
- 4th copy is 4,3 cm away from the center, rotation is 51°
- 5th copy is 5,4 cm away from the center, rotation is 68°
...and so on, unfortunately I can't arrange them manually because there are hundreds of them.
How would You do that? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

here you go, 5 copies
50 copies
#target Illustrator
//  arranges duplicates of selected object into a spiral
// step is 1.1 cm - 17 degrees hardcoded
// select object before running
// CarlosCanto 3/1/11
var idoc = app.activeDocument;
var isymbol = idoc.selection[0];
var teta = 0; // initial angle
var r = 1*28.346; // first dup, // 1 cm = 28.346 pts
var deltaTeta = 17; // angle increment
var deltar = 1.1*28.346; // distance increment
var a = prompt ("how many copies", 5, "Spiral Symbol Duplicates")
for (i=1 ; i<=a ; i++)
          var dupSymbol = isymbol.duplicate();
          var deltaX = r*Math.cos(teta*Math.PI/180);
          var deltaY = r*Math.sin(teta*Math.PI/180);
          dupSymbol.translate (deltaX, deltaY);
          r = r+deltar;
          teta = teta+deltaTeta;