Need help with Ceiling pattern with alternating distances - Is it possible?

[RedMan77]

Can anyone please help with a ceiling pattern that is 2'-0" in the X but 2'-0" and then 2'-9" in the Y?  For the whole ceiling it alternates between 2'-0" and 2'-9".  I am going crazy trying to figure this  if its even possible.  Seems it should be too different than a brick pattern.  Trying to create an existing condition in the ceiling and I am coming up against this.  I know I could just draw lines but I am trying to avoid that.  Any assitance is appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

[Pattycake_Kyle]

Nice explanations and help! @David_W_Koch 

For everyone else: See below image.

This helps understand what lines are controlling what... the colors in the [Pattern Preview] pane are connected to the top left [Hybrid Editor] panes... A,B,C,D... which are driven by the PAT [Text Editor] pane (this bottom left pane is what the pat file looks like).

I highlighted the "D" Green line as bold so you can see how its repeating. The colors help understand whats controlling what much easier.

[Anonymous]

@David_W_Koch ,

It works great! I appreciate the help.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

@Pattycake_Kyle ,

This helps a lot too. I've seen threads on here explaining how the line & number works but I can't find them anymore.

It's always good to understand how things work. Appreciate the help.

Thanks.

[steenrc24]

@David_W_Koch 

Great insight on all this!

I am trying to create an alternating ACT grid system. Seems simple, but I cannot get it to work.

It's a 4'x4' ACT system with intermediate 2'x4' ACT.

Could you please help?

[David_W_Koch]

@steenrc24 

So, alternating rows of 48x48 tiles and 24x48 tiles.  You need two lines, with a 72" repeat, horizontally and one line, with a 48" repeat, vertically.  First horizontal line (0-degree rotation) and the vertical line (90-degree rotation) start at 0,0 with 0 offset along the direction of the line and a 72 (horizontal)/48 (vertical) offset perpendicular to the line.  Second horizontal line (0-degree rotation) starts at 0,48, with 0 offset along the direction of the line and a 72 offset perpendicular to the line.

So, something like this, saved to a plain text file named Ceiling 48x48 24x48.pat:

;%UNITS=INCH
;%VERSION=3.0

*Ceiling 48x48 24x48, 4'x4' and 2'x4' alternating rows of ceiling tiles
;%TYPE=MODEL
0,             0,             0,             0,             72
0,             0,            48,             0,             72
90,            0,             0,             0,             48

Make sure you have a blank line at the end of the text file, and make certain that when you save the file, the file extension is .pat.  (You do not want to create a file called Ceiling 48x48 24x48.pat.txt.  I recommend setting File Explorer to show the file extensions of ALL file types, not just "unknown" types, so that you can be certain the file is named correctly.)

Or, use the file in the attached ZIP file (cannot attach PAT files).

[aaronrumple]

I suggest looking at pyRevit. It is an open source project.

It integrates a hatch creation tool as one of it functions.

You can draw your pattern and it will translate that into a Revit hatch pattern.

For the examples shown here it works very well with no knowledge of the *.pat format needed.

[sskolka]

hi @David_W_Koch 

i'm attempting a ceiling grid similar to this one with an additional tile in between and some slightly different tile sizes (2x4, 2x4, 4x5")

i figured out changing the tile sizes easily (below) but am having trouble adding the second 2x4 tile for the pattern repeat

0, 0,0, 0,48
0, 0,24, 0,48, 48,-5
90, 0,0, 0,53
90, 48,0, 0,53

intent shown here:

[mhiserZFHXS]

As said above, pyRevit has an excellent pattern creating tool, among many other handy tools. And its free!

[David_W_Koch]

@sskolka 

This worked for me (only tested it in AutoCAD, not Revit):

;%UNITS=INCH
;%VERSION=3.0

*Ceiling 48x24 48x24 5x48
;%TYPE=MODEL
0,      0,     0,    0,    48
0,      0,    24,    0,    48,    96,    -5
90,     0,     0,    0,    101
90,    48,     0,    0,    101
90,    96,     0,    0,    101

Having two columns of 48x24 tiles + one column of 5x48 tiles creates a 101 unit repeat, and you need 3 90-degree lines.