Patternodes

Patternodes is a tool for creating graphical patterns, animations, 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. You can also specify animation value ranges for any of these parameters.

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. Animations can be exported as GIF, QuickTime MOV or numbered PNG or JPG files

• Improvements to adding and removing nodes on value or color connections.
• Improvements to connection preview (right-click connections) for graphics connections and color connections.
• You can now reuse the same random value by linking one parameter to a random value node, and then others to that parameter. A new sample file 'Reusing random values' showing this added.
• The Group Arrange node can now be applied to selected elements only and move these to the front or back of the group.
• In all change nodes apply to random selection now lets you offset this random selection.
• Re-structured and cleaned up the preferences panel, removing some old redundant settings.
• Updates to manual and sample files (Find them in the Help menu).
• Fixes a bug with the Align node align group elements left and top.
• Fixes a bug where math nodes converted from other value nodes would not work properly.
• Fixes a bug where automatic spacing calculations would not update automatically when the artboard size was changed by a connected value node.
• Fixes interface problems for macOS 10.14 users with dark mode.