PatterNodes is a tool for creating graphical patterns, gradients, or illustrations based on repetitions. This is done by defining a sequence of steps, a recipe of sorts, that describes the pattern. Each pattern element or operation is represented by a little panel called a node, and the nodes are then linked by connections drawn between them. As the nodes can be freely combined and connected, this gives you a very flexible and powerful interface.

While this interface requires a different way of thinking, it also offers a lot of benefits compared to traditional Illustrator-type editors. Most importantly it enables you to use sliders to instantly change any aspect, like color, spacing, scaling, rotation or repetition count of any part of the pattern without having to undo/redo any steps.

The resulting pattern tile is always shown in the bottom preview view, repeated and updating in real time with any changes, giving you instant feedback of what the end result will be. To make pattern creation easier PatterNodes also includes a lot of nodes that automatically perform common tedious tasks like repeating elements at the tile edges to make the pattern seamless, or randomizing different aspects (like color, position, rotation, etc.) of the elements in a pattern to give it a little more life. Finally, when you're done you can simply copy the pattern tile into whatever illustration or graphics application you use, or export it either as vector graphics or a bitmap image file.

Major new features

• Multi-layer radial repetitions. Improvements to the Radial repeater node allowing you to add multiple layers with angle, count and radius offset per layer.
• Improved editing of offset and angle values. X/Y values (like offset or position) or rotation angle in selected nodes can now be edited by clicking and dragging directly in the pattern preview panel. When this is possible a little blue icon is shown next to the value fields and in the corner of the pattern preview.

Other changes and fixes

• Change to Radial repeater "rotate elements" option to be more intuitive (may break/change some existing patterns).
• New Element Count value node. Similar to the Element size node it returns the count of elements in a connected graphics array. Useful for remapping the array index value to something automatically.
• Improved parsing of pasted vector graphics in Custom shape nodes, avoiding duplicate curves for elements with both stroke and fill, as well as some problems with strange offsets.
• New preferences added for editing and exporting, like snapping to grid, display of connection previews and export clipping rectangles.
• Fixed a bug where PatterNodes would crash if you set both the A and B ratio to 0 in array split nodes. Now you just get no output instead.
• Fixed a bug where moving newly created Preview Nodes would move it to the top left corner the first time it was moved.
• Fixed some problems for users with non-administrator user accounts, like in schools or big companies.
• Updated and added new sample patterns and tutorial files to show new functionality.
• Fixed a bug causing copied vector graphics to sometimes have an unnecessary clipping rectangle.