Revit Hatch Patterns 101: Installing and Organizing Custom .PAT Files

Fill patterns are one of those Revit topics nobody teaches and everybody eventually googles. If you've ever needed a specific tile layout, a stone coursing or a drafting texture that Revit doesn't ship with, the answer is a custom .PAT file. Here's how they work and how to install one in under two minutes.

Drafting vs. model patterns (the distinction that matters)

Revit has two pattern species. Drafting patterns are symbolic: they keep a constant density on paper regardless of view scale — right for section fills and symbolic textures. Model patterns represent real-world dimensions: a 600×600 tile pattern measures 600 mm in the model at any scale — right for tile layouts, brick coursing, anything you'd dimension. A good .PAT file states which type it is; when you import, Revit asks you to confirm.

Installing a custom .PAT, step by step

1. Open any project or template, go to Manage → Additional Settings → Fill Patterns.
2. Choose the pattern species (Drafting or Model) and click New.
3. In the dialog, select Custom and click Import (older versions: Browse).
4. Point to your .PAT file, pick the pattern from the dropdown if the file contains several, and set the import scale.
5. Name it clearly (see below) and click OK. The pattern is now available anywhere fill patterns are used: materials, filled regions, surface patterns.

The two mistakes everyone makes

Wrong import scale. If the pattern comes in microscopic or gigantic, don't fight it in the material — delete and re-import with a corrected scale. Model patterns should import at 1:1 real dimensions.

No naming convention. Patterns accumulate. Prefix yours by family: TILE - Herringbone 120x600, STONE - Coursed Rubble, WD - Vertical Plank 90. Six months from now, you'll thank yourself.

Keeping patterns organized across projects

Patterns live inside the project, so the clean workflow is to load your curated set into your office template once — every new project inherits them. This is exactly why our Revit templates ship with a pattern library preloaded, and why we sell hatch patterns as ready-to-import .PAT sets with the naming and scales already sorted.

A note on quality

A well-made .PAT draws cleanly at typical print scales and doesn't strobe on screen. If a pattern moirés at 1:50, it's over-dense for its purpose — a common flaw in auto-generated patterns. Test any new pattern in a filled region at your standard scales before committing it to materials.