Panels

Patterns

Patterns are the tiles laid on the project's surfaces and the hatches its layers are cut with: the template's own, and the project's. The Patterns section of the standard panel lists every one with how many times it is used, opens each in the pattern editor, copies it, and resets a standard pattern the project changed.

What it is

The project's patterns are listed in the Patterns section of the standard panel, opened from the standard's key in the status bar. Its title carries how many patterns there are and + New. Each pattern is a row on two lines: a swatch of its tile, its name and, beside it, how many times it is used, or Standard pattern, or Not used, with modified when the project changed a standard pattern. Its verbs wrap under the name:

a click on the row opens the pattern in the pattern editor, where its tile, its joints and its edges are drawn;
Copy makes a new pattern of the project from it, named after it with copy;
See uses, while a surface lays it, selects the first one in the outliner;
Reset to the standard, on a standard pattern the project changed, gives the template's tile back to every surface that lays it;
Delete, on a pattern of the project's own, removes it, and holds only while nothing uses it.

The list holds the template's surface patterns, its cut hatches, then the project's own. A standard pattern can be edited: Done in the pattern editor writes the project's own version of it under the same name, and every surface that lays it follows. The template itself is never written.

The same list opens from a wall's or a room's panel, through Patterns… in its Patterns section, as the PATTERNS panel of the left column. There the template's patterns show their tile's size, with Copy and, once changed, ↺; each of the project's own patterns folds open on its Name, its Material, its Tile width, its Tile height and its Row shift, how many surfaces lay it, Edit tile and Delete.

When to use it

Making a pattern of your own, such as a stone bond of the house you survey.
Changing the size or the bond of a template pattern for this project.
Finding which surfaces lay a pattern.
Cleaning the project of patterns nothing uses.

The steps

Open the patterns. Click the standard's key in the status bar, then open Patterns. The rows show every pattern with its uses.
Copy a pattern. In a project under ISO, on Stretcher bond, 2M × 1M, click Copy. A toast says that Stretcher bond, 2M × 1M copy is the project's own, and its row joins the list.
Change its bond. Click the copy's row. The pattern editor opens on its tile: change its width and its row shift, and click Done.
See where a pattern is used. On a pattern used several times, click See uses. The first surface that lays it is selected in the outliner.
Delete the copy. On the copy, which nothing uses yet, click Delete. It leaves the project.

What it refuses

Deleting a pattern a surface lays. Delete is greyed and says it is in use: take it off every placement first.
Deleting a standard pattern. It has no Delete; a changed one has Reset to the standard instead.
A row shift as wide as the tile, or a tile narrower than its row shift, in the PATTERNS panel: the fields refuse it.
A pattern the engine refuses. Its row has no swatch and no door, and says it was refused; the findings say why.

What it writes to the contract

Each change is one step that one Ctrl+Z takes back. The project's patterns are its patterns, each under its id, with its label, its tile's module (width and height in metres), its offset (the row shift), its joints, its material and, when an edge is not a joint, its edges. Copy writes a new entry under the next free id; + New writes one named New pattern when the editor's Done saves it. Done on a standard pattern writes the project's version under the standard's own id, and Reset to the standard removes it. Delete removes the entry. Where a pattern is laid is written on the surfaces, never here.

Common questions

How do I make my own tile pattern?

In the standard panel's Patterns section, click + New. The pattern editor opens on an empty 0.20 × 0.10 m tile: set its size, draw its joints and click Done. The pattern joins the project under a name of its own.

Can I change a standard pattern?

Yes. Click its row to open it in the pattern editor and click Done: the project gets its own version under the same name, and every surface that lays it follows. Its row is then marked modified, and Reset to the standard gives the template's tile back.

Why can I not delete a pattern?

Because a surface still lays it. Its row says how many times it is used; See uses selects the first one. Take it off every surface first. A standard pattern has no Delete at all.