Morningstar DesignWorks, LLC · Release 1.0

Mechanism Pattern Studio

Seven real linkages, a rotating platen, and a pen that draws what they do. Set the bar lengths, pick where the pen sits, and watch the figure close — or deliberately miss, and let it precess.

Runs in a browser · no CAD required · exports SVG for a pen plotter or a laser

Try it free Get the studio

$24.99Instant download · one HTML file, with the seven nomenclature sheets and the guide inside it

A woven eight-lobed pattern traced by a four-bar linkage over a rotating platen
Four-bar linkage, one-to-five platen. Revolutions 98 to 200 of a longer run, kept as its own layer in two inks, with the trail fading behind the pen. Straight off the studio — no retouching, no drawing by hand.

What it is

A drawing machine you can actually build

Every figure here comes from a mechanism that could be cut from plate and pinned together: a four-bar, a drag link, a slider-crank, a five-bar with a pinned or sliding joint, a telescoping two-crank, a cam and follower. The studio solves the linkage properly at every step rather than drawing a pretty curve that resembles one, so it tells you immediately when the bars you have chosen cannot reach.

Mount the whole thing over a turntable and the pattern is the mechanism's path wrapped around a rotation. That is where the density comes from, and where the control is.

Seven mechanisms

Each with its own presets, all of which assemble through a full sweep. No hunting for a set of lengths that works.

Precession

Detune the platen by a fraction of a degree and every closure lands slightly rotated. The readout tells you how many passes you have drawn and how far round they have got.

Layers

Keep a trace, change the setup, keep another. Each layer holds the settings that made it, and the title block on the export lists them.

Built for a machine

True-size SVG, a single-stroke title block that CAM software can actually read, and a line width that is what the pen receives rather than what looks right on screen.

The seven

Pick any one to read its nomenclature sheet — every dimension named, the same sheets the studio carries.

Four-bar
Slider-crank
Five-bar, sliding
Telescoping two-crank
Drag link
Five-bar, pinned
Cam and follower

Try it · free

Drive one right now

No download, no sign-up, nothing to install. This is the real studio with some of it held back: change a link, move the pen, and watch the curve build up as the platen turns.

Free, in your browser

Open it full screen →

The demo gives you the four-bar and the slider-crank, with 200 revolutions. The paid version adds:

  • All seven mechanisms
  • Five cam profiles
  • 4,000 revolutions
  • True-size SVG
  • CSV of every point
  • Layered compositions
  • Save and load layouts
  • The offline file, yours to keep

Selected output

What comes off it

Five-bar rosette: seven petals of smooth overlapping curves
Five-bar rosetteTwo cranks turning against each other, near unison, on a platen geared one to seven. Stepped finely enough that each pass comes out a smooth curve — 846 of them, laid side by side into petals.
A rose of six broad petals, overtraced in a single red ink
RoseCrank 1 tied to the platen offset so the figure closes into petals, with crank 2 held back to widen them. One ink, overtraced until the line reads as a ribbon.
The same rose drawn at three sizes in red, violet and white
One rose, three sizesCrank 1 scaled with the platen offset, so the figure holds its shape as it shrinks, with crank 2 held back to open the petals out. Overtraced, and each pass kept as its own layer in its own ink.

Specifications

The detail

Mechanisms
7
Presets
28, all verified to assemble
Output
SVG, true size · CSV point list
Title block
single-stroke, machine readable
Ink
16 presets or free HSL
Layers
unlimited, each self-describing
Runs in
any current browser, offline
Delivery
one HTML file

Get it

One file, yours to keep

Single tool

Mechanism Pattern Studio

$24.99
  • Seven mechanisms with verified presets
  • Turntable, detune and layers
  • SVG and CSV export
  • Nomenclature sheet for each mechanism, built in
Get the studio

Both tools

Studio and Track Generator

$34.99
  • Everything above
  • Trochoid Track Generator — real gear teeth, real tracks
  • Shared colour, fade and export behaviour across both
  • One guide covering the pair
Get both

Questions

Before you buy

Do I need CAD?

No. It is one HTML file that runs in a browser, offline, with nothing to install. If you do use Fusion, the exported SVG imports as sketch geometry.

Will it drive my laser or plotter?

The SVG is true size in millimetres with the line width you set, and the title block is drawn as single-stroke polylines rather than text, so CAM software reads it as geometry instead of ignoring it. Set the width for the machine and use the screen vividness control to see it.

How is this different from the Track Generator?

The Track Generator rolls a planet gear around a track and cuts real teeth. This one solves pin-jointed linkages. The Generator gives you spirograph families; the Studio gives you the curves a four-bar or a five-bar traces, which are a different shape of thing entirely.

What do I get?

One HTML file, with the seven nomenclature sheets and the written guide inside it — a button beside the mechanism selector opens the sheet for whatever you are drawing, and Help opens the guide covering sampling, closure, precession and export. Updates to the release you bought are free.

Start with a preset and turn one knob

Every preset assembles, so nothing is broken before you touch it. Change the platen ratio and the whole family opens up.

Get the studio — $24.99