Studio and Track Generator — both browser tools
Two pattern makers for people who cut what they draw. Both run from a single HTML file in any browser — no install, no account, no internet after the download — and both export true-size SVG for a pen plotter, laser or router, plus a CSV of every point.
They are not two versions of one idea. They solve different geometry, and the curves look different because of it.
Mechanism Pattern Studio solves linkages. Seven of them — four-bar, drag link, slider-crank, five-bar pinned and sliding, two cranks on a telescoping bar, cam and follower — pinned, driven, and solved properly at every step, with a pen fixed anywhere on the moving parts and a turntable rotating under the paper. Bars swing and reverse, so the curves come out with cusps, loops and flat runs that no rolling circle produces. It tells you immediately when the lengths you have chosen cannot reach.
Trochoid Track Generator rolls. A planet on a track, with real tooth counts, so the figures close instead of drifting. The track can be one circle for the classic spirograph or up to six for racetracks, ovals and rounded polygons; the planet can be shaped rather than round, which is the quickest route to a figure no spirograph wheel could make. Roll it outside the track or inside it for two quite different families from the same numbers, in diametral pitch or module.
Learn one and you know most of the other: colour, fade, layers, animation, view and saving work the same way in both.
In the download
Mechanism Pattern Studio, Release 1.0 — with all seven illustrated nomenclature sheets built in, on a button beside the mechanism selector, and the written guide behind Help
Trochoid Track Generator, Release 1.2 — with its own guide behind Help
Both guides again as standalone pages, and as plain text
A START HERE page covering which tool suits which job
The detail
Runs offline, forever. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is tracked
Any current browser on Mac, Windows, Linux, iPad or phone
Output: SVG at true size, CSV point lists, layered compositions
Save and reload a session as a file
Free updates within the release you bought
Use the output for anything, personal or commercial. Sell what you make. Please don't redistribute the files themselves
Try both free on their product pages before you buy — the demos are the real tools with some of it held back.
Two pattern makers for people who cut what they draw. Both run from a single HTML file in any browser — no install, no account, no internet after the download — and both export true-size SVG for a pen plotter, laser or router, plus a CSV of every point.
They are not two versions of one idea. They solve different geometry, and the curves look different because of it.
Mechanism Pattern Studio solves linkages. Seven of them — four-bar, drag link, slider-crank, five-bar pinned and sliding, two cranks on a telescoping bar, cam and follower — pinned, driven, and solved properly at every step, with a pen fixed anywhere on the moving parts and a turntable rotating under the paper. Bars swing and reverse, so the curves come out with cusps, loops and flat runs that no rolling circle produces. It tells you immediately when the lengths you have chosen cannot reach.
Trochoid Track Generator rolls. A planet on a track, with real tooth counts, so the figures close instead of drifting. The track can be one circle for the classic spirograph or up to six for racetracks, ovals and rounded polygons; the planet can be shaped rather than round, which is the quickest route to a figure no spirograph wheel could make. Roll it outside the track or inside it for two quite different families from the same numbers, in diametral pitch or module.
Learn one and you know most of the other: colour, fade, layers, animation, view and saving work the same way in both.
In the download
Mechanism Pattern Studio, Release 1.0 — with all seven illustrated nomenclature sheets built in, on a button beside the mechanism selector, and the written guide behind Help
Trochoid Track Generator, Release 1.2 — with its own guide behind Help
Both guides again as standalone pages, and as plain text
A START HERE page covering which tool suits which job
The detail
Runs offline, forever. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is tracked
Any current browser on Mac, Windows, Linux, iPad or phone
Output: SVG at true size, CSV point lists, layered compositions
Save and reload a session as a file
Free updates within the release you bought
Use the output for anything, personal or commercial. Sell what you make. Please don't redistribute the files themselves
Try both free on their product pages before you buy — the demos are the real tools with some of it held back.