Putting designs into repeat is one of the most important stages in the development of designs and one of the most useful and versatile areas of the AVA software. AVA offers several different ways to put designs into repeat which gives the user the flexibility to choose the right method for a particular type of design. If your workflow regularly involves creating a new design and putting it into repeat, why not speed this up with a palette.
The Repeat Window is a floating window which means it can be kept open at all times and it will update to reflect the repeat settings of the active document. If you chose to close this window after adjusting the number of visible repeats in the file, you can toggle between the number of repeats you entered and a single repeat using the One Repeat / Restore Repeats icon in the toolbar of your Design Window.
When the document is in a single repeat, this option changes to Restore Repeats:
You may need to customise the toolbar of the Design Window to add this option.
Note: When you open a design that has been saved in repeat, it will open with the same number of repeats as it was saved with if it was saved in the .ava4 format. For example, a design that was viewed with 3×2 repeats when it was last saved, will open with 3×2 repeats showing. If a design was viewed in a single repeat when it was saved, it will open as a single repeat even though it may have been set up in more repeats previously.
Using the Repeat Window
- Go to the View Menu and select Repeat. Alternatively you can use the keyboard shortcut ⌘⌥B.
- Use the Across and Down options to set the number of repeats you want to view of your design.
Note: Increasing the number of repeats here will not increase the size (MB) of your file because the repeats are only visual. If you used the Step & Repeat function (Edit Menu) to change the number of repeats, the file size would then increase because this function physically steps the design up to the number of repeats you specify.
- Use the Drop settings to apply a repeat drop if necessary. Selecting Other, rather than using one of the industry standard presets, will open up a slider bar for you to use and adjust the repeat drop. It is worth noting that it is not advisable to use non - standard drops.
- Tick Frame First Repeat if you would like to place a frame around the first repeat of your file. Doing this will help to identify the edges of complex textures and surface designs. Use the colour chip to the side of this option to change the colour of the frame. You can do this by ⌥ (option key) clicking on the chip and selecting a new colour from the colour picker. We advise using a contrasting colour to those used in the design. You can also double click on this chip to select a colour from a colour file, or you can drag and drop colours to this chip from the Swatches Palette or anywhere else you see a colour chip in AVA or ColourSys.
Borders
This setting lets you set a border around the repeat of the design, extending it by a chosen amount entered. It is very useful if you need to print more than a single repeat but not as much as two full repeats. Make sure you only view a single repeat of your design when using this feature, otherwise the file will show the bleed border as well as the chosen number of repeats across and down. You can set the design to a single repeat very quickly by pressing the Single Repeat icon in the toolbar of the Design Window:
You may need to customise the toolbar of the Design Window to add this option.
Fit Repeats to Size
This setting will override the number of repeats set in this window to the dimensions entered. This means, instead of viewing a set number of repeats you can choose to view an area of a specified size instead. This is ideal for printing specific sizes from the Design Window. It also works well when working in the Layout Window. If you set your design to show a specific size, as opposed to a repeat size, and use the Set Page feature in the toolbar of the Layout Window, it creates neat presentations.
Mirrors
The icons here let you create symmetrical designs such as scarves and napkins quickly and easily. Designs can be mirrored down the centre, horizontally or vertically, using the appropriate buttons in the Repeat Window.
Creating a block repeat
The first button is on as default and produces a block repeat. Essentially the mirrors are switched off when this option is selected:
Creating a vertical repeat
The second button produces a vertical repeat:
Creating a horizontal repeat
The third button produces a vertical repeat:
Creating vertical and horizontal repeats
The fourth button repeats your design both horizontally and vertically:
Creating contract repeats
The fifth button creates a contract repeat:
Automating the repeat set up of files
How many times in a day, week or month do you create a new design, set the dimensions and resolution, then put it into a half drop? Collectively these steps take up precious time, therefore we recommend you use a Custom Palette to perform this task at the click of a button.
Follow the steps below to automate this process.
- Create a Palette by going to File > New > Palette. A small window will open:
- Create a new design by going to File > New > Document and enter the required dimensions, resolution and layer type.
- Customise the toolbar of the Design Window to include the handler setting:
- Double click on the newly added handler icon in the toolbar to reveal its settings:
- Drag the Create New Document item to the Palette you created in Step 1. Your Palette will now look like this:
- Double click on the handler in the toolbar again and drag the Set Repeat item on top of the Create New Document button you created in Step 5.
- ⌥ (option key) click on the Create New Document button to reveal its editor:
- Name the button something appropriate.
- Customise the button further by taking a snapshot* of what you would like to use as your custom icon. Hold down ^ (control key) as you take the snapshot. This will copy it to the computer’s memory.
- Click on its existing icon, the one pre-defined by AVA. This will highlight in blue and use the keyboard shortcut ⌘V to paste the snapshot you took in Step 9 into here.
Integrated Repeat Editor
Edit the parameters of the repeat used in the Palette using the integrated editor. This is opened by clicking on the spanner icon to the right of the Set Repeat Palette item:
When you click this icon the editor will open, where you can make changes to the repeat of design when this task is run. The settings available are those found in the Repeat Window.
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