Search

Search on Pattern Archive uses a tag system to identify the parts of the patterns and to search the metadata. Tags are an exact search which is unlike using a search engine that tries to show you what it thinks are relevant to your search.

If you search two hanging points it will not show you patterns with one hanging point, hanging point, point place, hanging cat or any other similar combination of text anywhere in the title, description or on the page.

This means you will only ever see patterns that EXACTLY match the search you do, if a pattern does not meet the criteria, you will not see it. Trying to search something that is not a valid tag will result in nothing being found, even if it's similar to an existing tag or you include correct tags!

Tag Search

As you type in the search box it will attempt to match your text to a tag to search. You can then select that tag from the dropdown to add it to the search you are doing. Each tag is an individual chip and can't be combined together into one.

Tag Negating

Adding a - to any standard tag or clicking the - by a tag will negate or remove that from your search. This is a way to hide any patterns that contains something you do not want from list of things you have searched. Searching -nature will remove all nature patterns from your options.

Tag Lists

When looking at most pages with patterns on them, you will see a list of tags that can be interacted with. Tags in these lists can do three different things.

• Clicking the name of the tag will replace the current search with only that tag.
• Clicking the + will add the requirement of that tag to the current search.
• Clicking the - will negate the tag removing patterns with that tag from the search.

Tag Chains

Tag chains are how you refine a search. You might start with a broad tag like nature and look at some patterns then decide you don't want any flower patterns. Adding -flower to your search or by clicking the - by the flower tag will then remove all flower patterns while still showing you all the nature patterns. Then adding parts<50 will show you patterns that are less than 50 parts.

This gives you a search showing you nature patterns that do not have a flower and are less than 50 parts.

Special tags

There's also some special tags you can use to search other aspects of the supplied information of the patterns. Here is a list of all the current options you can use as search tags.

Each example is a clickable example that will show you the results of that search.

Search key	Example	Notes
author:	author:claycorp	Adding two authors to the search will not show patterns that list both as authors but rather shows all the patterns of both authors.
description:	description:monthly	Not case sensitive. Does not search tile text, use title: instead.
title:	title:sun moon & stars	Not case sensitive. Does not search description text, use description: instead.
id:	id:vzjbcuz5op7d32k	Requires a valid pattern ID. Can chain many together to make a shareable group of patterns without an account. Otherwise if you make an account you can create a Collection.
parts> or pieces>	parts>30
parts< or pieces<	parts<20
parts= or pieces=	parts=10
width>	width>10	Does not respect units.
width<	width<5	Does not respect units.
width=	width=7	Does not respect units.
height>	height>15	Does not respect units.
height<	height<6	Does not respect units.
height=	height=12	Does not respect units.
filesize>	filesize>20	Size is in kb
filesize<	filesize<15	Size is in kb
filesize=		This is a mostly useless search for people to use.