NGC 6946 with EMPIRE CO (1-0) contours overlaid on an optical image. The contours illustrate the IRAM-30m ¹²CO (1-0) integrated intensities. The millimeter observations have a resolution of 26″(∼800 pc), indicated by the orange circle. The contours are drawn at arbitrary intervals between 5 and 200 K km s⁻¹ to highlight the distribution of the molecular gas disk. The yellow circles indicate the locations of our pointed N₂H⁺(1-0) and HCN(1-0) observations, covering a wide range of galactic environmental conditions: center (0), spiral arms (1 and 2), interarm (4), and outskirts (3). The size represents the 28″ resolution of the IRAM-30m beam at ∼86 GHz.