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Using Line Pattern to Create a Circular Design

Overview

This article is a cut & paste from a post to the IQ Yahoo! group. Zoltan Kasa describes how to use IQ to create wreaths using any design.

Using Copy, Rotate, Move

You can do "circular repeats" using a sequence of Copy, Rotate and Move, with some prior calculation: you need to determine the angle of rotation of the pattern as a function of the number of repeats. For example, if you want to repeat a pattern five times around a circle, the required pattern rotation will be 360/5=72 degrees, which is one of the preset rotations in Modify.

To create the circular repeat, you place a pattern in a (temporary) block and set its rotation to zero. Then make a copy of it, select the 72-degree rotation step, rotate and move the copied pattern snapping its start point to the end point of the previous one. Then repeat the following steps three more times: Copy the last pattern, Rotate (note that the 72-degree step remains set), Move with snapping to the previous one. The endpoint of the last copy should match the start point of the first one, and a wreath is created.

Combine the patterns into one continuous pattern and size it to fit your design.

Using Line Pattern

You can also use Line Pattern, starting with an arbitrary length and zero rotation for the first pattern. Then stretch the consecutive patterns, keeping the length ("L") the same, the angle ("A") what you pre-calculated. Correct any error in controlling these parameters by snapping the end of the last repeat to the start point of the first one. This method creates a closed pattern automatically.