@Boldline Thank you for bringing this up (again). Like you mentioned, there have been earlier discussions and requests for such a feature. One that I bumped in yesterday was this : https://www.vectorstyler.com/forum/topic/2786/seamless-pattern-generator
I have made things 'work' by creating 2 artboards, setting up a 'referenced' pattern on the small one (representing the completed tile) and displaying the seamless use on a large artboard. It is a bit cumbersome. I follows largely the technique I have been using for many years in Inkscape, and what @Subpath documented for VS.
@VectorStyler Seamless pattern creation (for my purpose as surface pattern designer) opens up a huge industry with potentially a lot of users. The output required is a square (rectangle) tile, which includes the applied repeat as a whole (a square no matter if the pattern orignates from a hexagonal, half brick or whatever repeat). Then we need to export the design in several colourways (limited palette). The design I was working on yesterday was a recreation of a hand drawn pattern on a hex basis, which I had exported and now had a desire for to make it a vector.
I hand drew this in Amaziograph (which is amazing for this purpose) and which always yields a repeatable pattern. You do select a grid and set the size to work on initially, which means the ratios for height/width are knowns.
I traced it (in Inkscape, as I know my way around there better) and then made the repeat pattern there. Then I tried to do the same thing in VS, where I ran into some issues (which may have had to do with the transition of the svg from Inkscape to VS due to internal transformations but I was not able to figure out what was the cause).
VS shines from this point forward for this particular user group as the replace colors / replace color from palette is THE single most wanted feature for surface pattern designers (for textiles). We often work in a limited palette (8-12 colours, can be less, can be more) and cycling through this palette to find the best styles is brilliant. Such functionality is only readily available in that big commercial brother that we try to avoid.
Of course tracing a raster causes its own discrepancies so the seamless aspect at the edges was not perfect. So I rebuild the pattern manually to overcome that. With a solution as proposed by Boldline, this would all be done in a pinch.
Although I dislike to refer to 'them', Adobe Capture (on mobile & tablets) allows for 'Pattern building' in a similar way, by dragging components from your library (svg or raster) onto a similar automatically patterned view. It also allows you to build patterns from adhoc images and is heaps of fun to play with. There is synergy between Fresco (now free) and Capture (also free) which makes this a viable part for experimentation. I utilize these types of patterns as starting point for further exploration and turn them into vectors for developing a more professional surface pattern with colourways.
Big post, but I hope it shines some light on my workflow/use-case.
