Placing 8 objects on stage in a circle

Question

Hi,
Need some help placing 8 150X150 circles on stage at equidistant locations around a larger circle (644X644, line width 4, centered on stage). Stage is 750X750.
This is not dynamically drawn in runtime. Simply getting the correct coordinates for the 8 circle objects to place them around the 644X644 circle.
Have tried to do it with snapping, grid, by rough estimate, all with poor results. There must be a better way to determine the correct coordinates.
Any help appreciated.
Regards,

Answer 1

Even though you want to do it by hand you really should just use code, it's far more precise.
Here's an example demoing Kglads code that should help you understand how it works. All you have to do is modify what is being positioned in the loop. I'm generating a small black circle just for example.
Open a new AS3 doc and paste this in frame 1's script:
import flash.display.Sprite;
var xCenter:int = int(stage.stageWidth / 2);
var yCenter:int = int(stage.stageHeight / 2);
var cirRadius:int = 100;
for (var i:int = 0; i < 8; i++)
    // generating a black circle
    var c:Sprite = new Sprite();
    c.graphics.beginFill(0x0,1);
    c.graphics.drawCircle(-10,-10,10);
    c.graphics.endFill();
    addChild(c);
    c.x = xCenter + cirRadius * Math.cos(i*Math.PI/4)
    c.y = yCenter + cirRadius * Math.sin(i*Math.PI/4)
For you, you can keep an array of references to objects you want to position and use that. The code would change like this (expecting these objects to be on the stage, item_1, item_2, etc):
var xCenter:int = int(stage.stageWidth / 2);
var yCenter:int = int(stage.stageHeight / 2);
var cirRadius:int = 100;
// array of objects to reposition (must be on stage, change names to what you want)
var objs:Array = [item_1, item_2, item_3, item_4, item_5, item_6, item_7, item_8];
for (var i:int = 0; i < 8; i++)
    objs[i].x = xCenter + cirRadius * Math.cos(i*Math.PI/4)
    objs[i].y = yCenter + cirRadius * Math.sin(i*Math.PI/4)
If you want to specify the angles around the circle yourself, make another array with those:
var xCenter:int = int(stage.stageWidth / 2);
var yCenter:int = int(stage.stageHeight / 2);
var cirRadius:int = 100;
// array of objects to reposition (must be on stage, change names to what you want)
var objs:Array = [item_1, item_2, item_3, item_4, item_5, item_6, item_7, item_8];
// angles of each item desired
var desiredAngles:Array = [0,45,90,135,180,225,270,315];
for (var i:int = 0; i < 8; i++)
    objs[i].x = xCenter + cirRadius * Math.cos(desiredAngles[i] * (Math.PI/180));
    objs[i].y = yCenter + cirRadius * Math.sin(desiredAngles[i] * (Math.PI/180));
You don't need to loop over the objects, you can manually write each one if you want if that's easier of course..
// circles center at 300px, 100px radius, angle 90
someClip_mc.x = 300 + 100 * Math.cos(90 * (Math.PI/180));
someClip_mc.y = 300 + 100 * Math.sin(90 * (Math.PI/180));