News

After the release of Patternodes 3 and the influx of new and upgrading users there's now a first little update fixing some issues with the new version. There's also a new update of Patternodes 2 now available, backporting a couple of bugfixes found during the development of Patternodes 3, to ensure that Patternodes 2 is a stable as possible for the users who want to keep using that.

3.0.1 Fixes:

• Fixes macOS App Sandbox blocking file system access to export animations as numbered files in some cases.
• Fixes Repeat Grid node spacing aspect in Hex pattern mode while allowing still input.
• Fixes clicking disabled parameter fields still selecting them for preview edit.
• Fixed Change Pivot node not correctly finding automatic pivot locations for some asymmetrical shapes.

The third generation of the macOS parametric design application Patternodes has now been released. Click below for more information, or download and try it out for free now!

Patternodes is a tool for creating graphical patterns, animations or illustrations. This is done using a node-based interface where you define a sequence of connected nodes that describe the design, each representing graphical elements, changes or repetitions.

Main changes and new features of Patternodes 3

• Improved animation features. New keyframe-based Animation timeline and new Time Function node for animated noise and repeating functions.
• Improved drag editing. Improved support for selecting and editing node parameters by clicking and dragging in the preview.
• Redesigned interface. Cleaned up modern interface style with support for dark/light mode and animations.
• Improved performance. Rebuilt core components for faster generation and a more responsive interface.
• Redesigned dynamic index features. Clarified system for generating dynamic input to nodes.

For a full change list see the Version history

Another small update to Patternodes 2 has been released, with a couple of fixes to bugs found and fixed during Patternodes 3 development

• Fixes undo and redo not working when the separate preview window was active.
• Fixes an issue with the Change Pivot node failing to correctly calculate pivot of groups that already have a modified pivot.
• Fixes an issue where offsetting some elements in an already rotated group of elements could offset the entire group.

Patternodes 3 is now in beta testing, find out more at lostminds.com/patternodes3.

Another update to Patternodes has been released.

• Fixes an issue where the export save dialogue could become unresponsive when exporting a second time on macOS 12.1.
• Math expressions and all value fields now correctly evaluate asin() and acos() functions.
• Fixes an inconsistency in Group Apply Function node when using multiple periods of a non-continous function.
• Fixes a UI issue with the node reference table view columns on macOS 11 and later.

Patternodes 3 is now in beta testing, find out more at lostminds.com/patternodes3.

Patternodes 3, the next generation of the node based procedural 2D-graphics app Patternodes is now in beta testing.

Main changes and new features

• Improved animation features. New keyframe-based Animation timeline and new Time Function node for animated noise and repeating functions.
• Improved drag editing. Improved support for selecting and editing node parameters by clicking and dragging in the preview.
• Redesigned interface. Cleaned up modern interface style with support for dark/light mode and animations.
• Improved performance. Rebuilt core components for faster generation and a more responsive interface.
• Redesigned dynamic index features. Clarified system for generating dynamic input to nodes.

You can find out more and sign up to be a tester or get notified on release at lostminds.com/patternodes3.

Now there's a new update to Patternodes, this update is a hotfix of the 2.4.9 update that had some problems with the new group pivot point calculations and was therefore rolled back.

• Fixes a bug fram 2.4.8 that prevented adding new nodes by dragging and dropping a new connection.
• Fixed inner diameter parameter in Element Shape node arc pie wedge shapes.
• Fixed issues with loading older version files with pie wedge shapes.
• Some performance improvements.

Another small update of Patternodes 2 has been released with a couple of fixes and improvements.

• Fixes a bug in 2.4.8 that prevented adding new nodes by dragging and dropping a new connection.
• Fixes an issue where offsetting selected elements in a group with the Change Transform node might cause the entire group to also move unexpectedly.

Download the new version and try it out today, or update in the app.

Today as a result another small update of Patternodes 2 has been released with a couple of fixes and improvements.

• Preview view scroll position is now saved in pnds documents.
• Some fixes related to saving/loading files with broken connections.
• Fix the Element Shape node Arc pie wedge toggle being inverted.

Download the new version and try it out today, or update in the app.

As development of the next major update Patternodes 3 continues, Patternodes 2 has also gotten some attention this week. And today as a result another small update of Patternodes 2 has been released with a number of bug fixes.

• Fixes Change Pivot alignment presets not aligning the pivot point correctly.
• Fixes a crash related to selection rendering while drag editing some offset parameters.
• Fixes bug in the Group Arrange node that prevented arranging just selected elements in some cases.
• Fixes an issue with incorrect value function graph axis scales in the Apply Function node.
• Fixes a node UI bug where the apply to mode would appear to change when disabling a node.
• Fixes an issue where exported SVGs with imported svg elements could get problems with double id for some svg tags.

Download the new version and try it out today, or update in the app.

A small update of Patternodes 2 has been released. This updates mainly improves the Element Import node, with better support for importing EPS and SVG files generated by Affinity software and improved handling of various problems.

• Improved support for imported SVG and EPS of custom point shapes exported from Affinity software.
• Added support for even-odd fill mode in imported of custom point shapes.
• Better handling of problems when importing vector graphics from EPS/PDF/SVG files.
• Changes to make Color, Value and Element list nodes more consistent in appearance and function.

Download the new version and try it out today, or update in the app.

A new update of Patternodes 2 has been released. This time with the usual batch of fixes, but also some small additions and improvements to the Group Apply Function node, Value nodes and a refresh of the Sample files library included in the application. If you haven't checked them out in a while it might be worth a look!

• Improved Group Apply Function graph to be more responsive during animations and better show period offsets.
• Improved Group Apply Function node, making it easier to apply exact multi-period functions.
• Added an input socket to the basic Value node.
• Repeater nodes now correctly show the Dynamic input settings when connected directly to Element list nodes.
• Fixed an issue with Group Randomize nodes sometimes not loading correctly when opening older files.
• Updated Sparkle version checking library.
• Updated Sample files library available from Help menu.

Download the new version and try it out today, or update in the app.

A new maintenance update of Patternodes 2 has been released. This fixes a couple of different issues, and will hopefully resolve some long standing issues that prevented the software from running on macOS 10.11. There aren't that many users who are still on macOS 10.11, but it's been a shame that they haven't been able to update since 2.3.0 and hopefully this will mean they get access to the latest imprevements and fixes as well.

• Fixed some stability issues drag-moving complex font character elements.
• Restored support for legacy macOS 10.11 (a bit experimental).
• Fixed incorrectly offset node preview of elements with offset pivot points.
• Fixed Repeat Random node not hiding/showing some parameter fields correctly when using artboard size and no minimum spacing.
• Apply Graphics node now has a random seed field when applyin to removal chance.

Download the new version and try it out today, or update in the app.

Another update of the parametric 2d vector design app Patternodes, with a mixed bag of improvements, fixes and some new features.

• Improved preview updating frequency when rendering complex output and animation previews.
• Node value fields and formula fields now support the % modulus operator (ex: 10 % 4 will output 2).
• Node value fields and formula fields now support the round() function (ex: round(1.9) will output 2).
• Change nodes Selected Single apply to mode now loops around to restart at the first element if the offset is greater than the number or elements, consistent with other counted selections.
• Fixed Change Replace node not allowing Each or Selected apply modes even though the input is a group.
• More small interface adjustments on macOS 11.
• Updated a number of outdated tooltips and help texts.

Download the new version and try it out today, or update in the app.

We're starting off the new year with a small update of Patternodes, this time mostly some fixes and adjustments for running on macOS 11 (Big Sur) and soem rare number formatting issues.

• Some interface fixes on macOS 11 (Big Sur).
• Fixed some number formatting issues with value fields when using comma as a thousands separator.
• Value fields should now correctly show comma as the decimal separator based on your system settings.
• Made trial mode watermark a little more subtle.
• Removed a redundant search field from the Help menu.

Download the new version and try it out today, or update in the app.

Another update to Patternodes, this time just some smaller fixes mainly around the .pnds file format.

• Preview rendering scale fixes on retina screens.
• Changes to .pnds file format for improved future compatibility.
• Update to Finder quick look preview component.

Download the new version and try it out today, or update in the app.

A new version of the node based pattern and parametric design app Patternodes 2 has been released. This update brings a number of new improvements to the random repeater node, a new removal chance mode in the apply function/graphics nodes and improvemnts to SVG imports and exports. The app is now also a itel/apple silocone universal binary and of course there's a bunch of little bug fixes as well.

• Improved Random repeater node with new radial mode and option to set a minimum distance between repeated elements.
• Gradual removal. Apply Function and Apply Graphics nodes can now be used to apply a gradual removal chance to elements.
• Improved SVG exports with greatly reduced file-size using svg-symbols for images and embedding of imported SVG elements.
• Improved SVG path importing, with support for matrix() group transforms often used by Affinity Designer.
• Apple Silicon native support.
• Fixes a bug where the little pivot point markers would not show correctly in the Change Pivot node previews.
• Fixes a bug with some invalid connections not being removed after replacing nodes.
• Fixes a bug where replacing a change nodes with group nodes could lead to an invalid apply-to mode in the group node.
• Update to Sparkle updating library.

Download the new version and try it out today, or update in the app.

Due to technical problems at our payment handling provider paddle.com it's currently not possible to purchase licenses for Vectoraster or Patternodes.

Paddle has acknowleged the problems and are saying that they are working on a solution, you can follow the status of this at their status page. Or you can simply come back a little later here and see if the purchase links have started working again. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope this will be resolved swiftly.

Update: The problems have now been resolved and purchasing should work as usual again.

A new version of the pattern and motion design app Patternodes 2 has been released. This update brings improvements to the export dialogues, primarily making it easier to export to a different size than the current artboard or preview size, along with a number of other little fixes and improvements.

• New export size settings lets you easily export animations or graphics at a different size than the current artboard.
• Added item in Help menu for the new system for feedback and voting on future development.
• Fixes a bug with some export settings not being properly saved per document.
• Fixes a bug with the Group Select node preview sometimes not showing the mask element when it should.
• Fixes a bug where disconnected nodes didn't properly update their previews.
• The node replace/add context menus now include the node type level for clarity even if there's only one possible type.
• Added a new warning message to completely disconnected nodes explaining they won't do anything.
• New method for logging technical warnings without relying on system log.

Download the new version and try it out today, or update in the app.

We get a lot of feedback and great ideas from you users. This is always very useful, as it helps us understand how the software is used and how we can make it better.

To make it easier to send feedback we've now set up a new simple system for this to help guide the future development of our applications. Basically it's just a simple list, linked from each product page, with ideas for future features. In this list you can then just click to vote on the features you think would be most useful to you.

If you're interested you can also sign up with your e-mail, and if you do we'll notify you if any of the features you've voted for are implemented.

A new version of the vector pattern and animation app Patternodes 2 has been released. This update expands and improves the Inside clipping functionality by adding this capability to the Group Apply function and Group Apply graphics nodes. Just like in the Transform nodes previously this lets you transform the content in clipped elements in an easy way.

• Apply Function and Apply Graphics now also have an Inside clipping option.
• Fixes a bug where Inside clipping transform option would sometimes be hidden, even if the input graphics was clipped.
• Fixes a bug where the Apply to mode selector would sometimes be incorrectly disabled in Group: Apply function nodes.
• Stability improvements for changing connected node types using the Replace node menu.
• More helpful feedback messages when entering incorrect license information.

Download the new version and try it out today, or update in the app.

Another update of the vector pattern and animation app Patternodes 2 has been released. This time with some usability improvements to make it easier to work with nodes and connections, some preview bug fixes and preparations for future updates.

• Value field hover controls are now hidden while dragging connections.
• Added new Nodes menu item to toggle node grid snap on/off.
• Added new Display menu item to toggle selected node element outlines on/off.
• Fixes some pixel gap issues with the finder Quick Look previews of repeating pattern .pnds files.
• Fixes incorrect pivot location of elements after offsetting content inside of clipped element groups.
• Added deprecation warnings to the artboard node mirroring settings that will be removed in a future update. Please use the Repeat Mirror node instead.

Download the new version and try it out today, or update in the app.

A new update of the vector pattern and animation app Patternodes 2 has been released. This time with some improvements making it easier to work with clipped elements, some value field improvements and some bug fixes.

• New 'Inside clipping' transform mode for Transform and Randomize nodes makes it easy to transform the content elements with a clipping mask.
• Pressing Esc while editing value fields now reverts their value.
• Improvements to parsing math expressions in value fields.
• Fixed a crash when adding an unconnected Make seamless node.
• Some under the hood improvements to the node reference help window.

Download the new version and try it out today, or update in the app.

A new maintenance update of the pattern creation and animation app Patternodes 2 has been released. This new version doesn't bring any big new features, but several smaller improvements and fixes.

• Improved quality for exported h264 compressed video files.
• Some minor macOS 11 compatibility changes.
• Added a setting controlling if a new document should be opened at startup.
• Fixed some issues with exporting to filenames with spaces in them.
• Fixed Little Snitch internet access policy so it now properly describes the purpose of update and license check connections.
• Fixed incorrect error message when entering incorrect license details.
• Improved technical info and error logs for support and bug reports.
• Updated Sparkle updating framework.

You can find the full change log in the version history. Download the new version and try it out today, or update in the app.

If you're interested in Patternodes and want to get started with some basics there's now a tutorial with an introduction to animation in Patternodes over at Generative Hut. Just click below!

A new version of the pattern creation and animation app Patternodes 2 has been released. This new update add support for encoding exported videos in h.264 codec for improved compression, and all export settings are now saved per file. The update also fixes a couple of interface bugs and layout issues in the built in node reference.

You can find the full change log in the version history. Download the new version and try it out today, or update in the app.

A new version of the pattern creation and animation app Patternodes 2 has been released. It seems like the performance optimizations in Patternodes 2.3.0 caused a couple of bugs with the previews flickering or not updating correctly and the new update mainly focusses on fixing those problems.

• Fixes flickering or lack of updates in the main preview in some situations.
• Fixes a bug where the selection markers wouldn't update properly after deleting multiple nodes.
• Fixes node previews not updating correctly when graphic input is removed or the node is disabled.
• Node element caching is now always on instead of being a performance option.
• Adds deprecation warnings shown when using some legacy node types, along with a new option to turn these warnings off.
• Improvements to the Feedback dialogue technical info logs

A new version of Patternodes 2 has been released. This new updates adds some new features with new functionality related to animation and randomization nodes, but primarily it brings a lot of performance improvements and bug fixes. The update also fixes a couple of issues related to working on a retina mac and some problems importing legacy files from Patternodes 1.

• Greatly improved performance especially for working with animations and files with many elements.
• New Plateau Animated value function making it easier to make interesting animations where a value transitions between two constant levels.
• New Randomize Deep Change option in Group Randomize and Randomize Color nodes for applying individual changes to all sub elements without needing to flatten the group first.
• You can now rename Color nodes just like Value nodes.
• New setting for default new document size.
• New setting to include a set of default nodes or not in new documents.
• Improvements to editing values of linked node parameters.
• Connection context menu now shows total number of sub elements in multi-level groups.

• Fixes fullscreen preview being incorrectly scaled on retina screens.
• Fixes a potential hang when importing some legacy Patternodes 1 files.
• Fixes long delay when closing files with a lot of pattern elements.
• Fixes importing legacy Patternodes 1 files Randomize and Randomize Color nodes.
• Improved performance importing legacy Patternodes 1 files.
• Fixes a bug where the bottom pattern preview view would be the wrong size after closing the separate preview panel.
• Fixes a bug where drag offset markers wouldn't be properly updated when opening or closing the separate preview panel.
• Fixes incorrect total update times in the render info panel.

The original 2.2.9 update to Patternodes had a bug in it that prevented new created unconnected nodes from displaying correctly. So now there's a quick fix 2.2.91 version available that fixes this problem. Thanks to everyone who reported this problem right away so we could fix it quickly!

Another update to the pattern creation and animation app Patternodes has been released. This time the focus is on fixing some bugs reported by users along with improving the memory management.

• You can now pan around the node graph by dragging with middle mouse button.
• Improved memory management.
• Fixes animation export as numbered PDF files.
• Fixes problem with properly loading some connections to Change node selection parameters.
• Fixes Element index menu node icons being the wrong size.

The pattern creation and animation app Patternodes has been updated again. This time mostly a bunch of smaller tweaks and improvements.

• Added/fixed support for importing many more image formats, including photoshop psd, tga, raw and more.
• Improvements to the Finder Quick Look file .pnds previews.
• Improved interface performance.
• Additional license information is now available from the About window.
• Improved connection security and handling of network problems during license syncing.
• Rendering info statistics panel is now an overlay in the main preview instead os a separate panel.

A new update for the vector graphics pattern and animation tool Patternodes 2 is now available for download. This new updates brings some new features and improvements to the Text node and Clipping mask node, as well as numerous other small fixes and improvements.

• Improved Text element node with support for dynamic value based text and a new Text box mode with for better aligning and layout control. NOTE: This may mean some layout changes are needed for files using the old text node multi-line mode.
• Improved Clipping mask node now has an invert option that lets you use what's outside the clipping mask instead, and can be used to remove existing clipping paths.
• Math nodes now resize automatically to fit longer formulas.
• Fixes a bug where clicking out of the Artboard node size fields would revert values instead of applying changes.
• Leaving value fields empty now set them to 0 instead of showing a formula parsing error.
• Fixes a couple of issues with importing legacy Patternodes 1 files.
• Fixes bug with renaming artboard layers in some situations.
• Fixed a bug where the animation duration would initially be incorrect when loading longer animation files.
• You can now access pictures from your Photos albums when browsing to import graphics.
• Improved performance.

A new update for Patternodes 2 is now available for download. This is a smaller update that primarily improves artboard layer management and node reference, but it also fixes some interface issues on macOS 10.13.

• Artboard layer management. You can now add, remove, rename and rerorder the layers in the Artboard node.
• Fixes a bug causing node connections to render incorrectly on macOS 10.13.
• Fixes and improvements to the Node reference interface.
• Fixes a bug with the menu items for selecting linked nodes were disabled.

Another update for Patternodes 2 is now available for download. This version add two new nodes, Distribute and Pack, to let you work with spacing for elements in a group. For example useful if you first want to to some controlled randomizing of the lements, and then space the elements in a controlled way based on their new positions or sizes. Along with this the update also brings another set of fixes and improvements to various other areas of the application. Enjoy!

• New Group Pack node letting you pack elements in a group horizontally or vertically with a set margin.
• New Group Distribute node letting you distribute elements in a group evenly horizontally or vertically.
• Fixes some graphical glitches in the preview view on high zoom on macOS 10.14.
• Better feedback when value fields fail to parse expressions or parameter formulas.
• Fixes some bugs with preview display scale after exporting.
• Smoother opening/closing of the separate preview panel.
• More improved node warning messages and warnings interface components.
• Better handling of problems when loading corrupted/unsupported and legacy files.
• Fixes some incorrect descriptions in the node reference.

Patternodes 2 has been updated and the new version is now available for download. This version adds a couple of small improvements, but mainly fixes a couple or bugs and problems related to importing and pasting in graphics from other apps to use in Patternodes.

• The Grid repeater node now offers a grid height output socket in hex grid mode to make it easier to make seamless hex grids.
• The Element list node now supports input of up to 20 different elements instead of 10.
• Improvements to pasting/dragging graphics into the node graph.
• Fixes a bug where multiple pasted/imported graphics with the same name could be replaced with the same graphic when loading a file.
• Fixes some selection outline problems.
• Fixes a bug where exporting with a transparent background could instead export a solid black background.

Another update of Patternodes 2 is now available for download. This version adds a new group Explode node, that makes it easy to move group elements in relation to their center (pivot), and greatly improves the inline warning messages interface to make it easier to understand when something is going wrong and how to fix it.

• New Group Explode node A new node that makes it easy to move elements in a group away from or towards the group pivot point.
• Better warnings UI Improved inline interface for node warning messages and more warnings.
• Smart initial node values Value and color nodes created by dragging from a parameter input socket now start out with the socket value.
• Fixed a bug with element nodes created by dragging from Artboard node sockets getting double connections.
• Added link to the lost code form in license code entry interface.

Another update of Patternodes 2 is now available for download, with further bug fixes and focus on usability improvements and expanding the dynamic elements and parameters features.

Most noticable is the new way you can quickly add new nodes connected to a parameter by simply dragging out a connection from the parameter and letting go in the editor. This will then let you select a new node to add, connected to the parameter. For example, it makes it very easy to say a parameter should be controlled by an animated or random value.

For more advanced users this update also makes some changes to how repeaters apply their spacing and transofrmations parameters, making it possible to use dynamic values to change the spacing based on for example row or repeater index.

• Quicker node creation You can now add new nodes by simply draggin out a connection from any node socket and releasing.
• Repeater nodes dynamic offsets (Repeat Transform, Grid and Radial) now work better with dynamic offset/scaling/rotation parameter values.
• You can now zoom in the preview with trackpad pinch gestures.
• Improvements to retaining node connections when changing node types.
• Fixed some undo/redo bugs related to changing connections.
• Fixed Artboard node set size preset menu shortcuts.
• Fixed Artboard node background opacity not updating correctly with connected values.
• Apple application notarization (New Apple security requirements).
• Improvements to update checking.
• Updates to sample files. (Available from the Help menu)

Another update of Patternodes 2 is now available for download. The main focus of this update is further usability improvements to make it easier to work with and understand the software. One big improvement is you can now drag and drop files into the node editor or into import nodes, and life will be a little easier for one-button mouse users as you can now use either left or right click on connections to access the connection menu.

Most of the changes however relate in one way or the other to the dynamic repeater elements feature, and aim at making this easier to use and understand. Now all repeater indexes will be available all the time, and dynamic elements will be enabled by default if you connect repeater or element parameters to something dynamic (like an index or random value). The connection previews also now show the number of iterations generated for dynamic elements that are generated multiple times.

• Drag and drop support for importing files into the node editor or into an existing Element Import node.
• Left-click now also brings up the connection context menus, with better visual hover feedback.
• Fixes and improvements to dynamic element repeater functionality.
• You can now zoom the preview with option (alt) scroll wheel, and you can scroll a little beyond the edge of your artboard.
• The node connection preview now shows number of generations for dynamic elements.
• Fixes some undoing/redoing bugs.
• Improved performance and memory management.
• The Custom Loop repeater node is deprecated and will soon be removed (use other repeater dynamic elements and indexes instead).

The recent influx of new Patternodes 2 users has meant a lot of new feedback and bug-reports have been coming in. So here's another update of Patternodes 2with further improvements and fixes. I think all users will notice some nice usability improvements when it comes to handling connections, previews and adding nodes on connections.

While perhaps a little technical the most exiting to me is probably the new method for re-using random parameter values in dynamic elements by linking to parameters using random values. For example assigning a random size to elements and then assigning an opacity based on the size like in the example above.

• 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.

A new version of the node-based vector pattern and animation design application Patternodes has been released. The new version adds a bunch of small additions, fixes and improvements, and is now available as a free update for all users.

• The Arc wedge shape in the Element Shape Node can now be given an inner diameter.
• Rounded polygons and Star shapes in the Element Shape node can now get pointy negative rounding.
• Added support for relative adjustments in the Change Opacity and Change Stroke nodes.
• New context menu shortcuts on the Artboard node to apply preset artboard sizes.
• Improvements to node connection usability.
• Improvements to node placement when adding new nodes on connections.
• Fixes a bug with the Group Apply Function node, pivot distance mode for groups of element groups.
• Fixes a bug with incorrect first regeneration when toggling dynamic elements off and on in repeater nodes.
• Apple Hardened runtime security features.

Today another update of Patternodes has been released. The new version adds some improvements for finder previews (like icon thumbnails and sharper vector-previews for less complex graphics), and fixes some bugs. Update from within the application or download the new version and try it out free using the link below.

• Improvements to Finder previews and thumbnails for .pnds files.
• Fixes some problems with SVG exports.
• Fixes a rare network full version unlocking bug.