Add a Hatch Pattern to an Existing Revit Material, Texture Kept

A material taken from a shared library can arrive with its picture and without its pattern lines: the texture is there, but plan, section and Hidden Line views show no tile joints. Those lines belong to two settings on the material’s Graphics tab, the Surface Pattern and the Cut Pattern, separate from the texture. This page covers the manual way to edit them, why a custom tile hatch is slow to build, and how Motif sets them on a material you already have while the texture stays as it is.

Edit a material’s pattern lines in the Material Browser

Autodesk’s steps (Change the Graphics Properties of a Material):

1. Open Manage > Settings > Materials to get the Material Browser.
2. Select the material in the project materials list and open the Graphics tab.
3. Under Surface Pattern, set the pattern and colour for the Foreground; a Background can be set as well.
4. Do the same under Cut Pattern.
5. Click Apply, then OK.

The texture is not on this tab. Autodesk adds a note: “To change the appearance of a material in rendered images, change its render appearance.” So editing the hatch does not retouch the picture. To build a material from nothing instead, see how to create a Revit material.

Surface pattern or cut pattern: what each one draws

The surface pattern is drawn on an element’s exposed face, such as a tile finish; the cut pattern appears only where a view’s cut plane or section box slices the element (cad-notes.com). Autodesk’s help says that for materials you “can use drafting patterns or model patterns”, each with a foreground and a background. A drafting pattern keeps its density fixed to the sheet; a model pattern represents “ceramic tile on a wall” and scales with the model (About Drafting Patterns and Model Patterns).

Which type may fill which slot? Tested by the Motif team in Revit 2023: the Surface Pattern accepts a model or a drafting pattern, the cut slot a drafting pattern only. Revit refused a model pattern there with “The FillPattern target must be a drafting pattern”. If the cut lines are missing or the wrong size, read why a cut pattern does not show; if the texture drifts off the joints, read the alignment fixes.

Why a custom tile hatch takes so long

The pattern list is the easy part. Building the pattern is not. In a 2022 Autodesk Community thread an architect writes that the working-drawing linework “is another issue” next to a good manufacturer image, that making “a usable hatch pattern for that product” is “insanely tedious”, and that Pattycake “is a great resource” but “it is still tedious to make the patterns” (Tile Patterns in Revit). In 2025 another user trying to hand-write a mosaic accent tile pattern reports “a really hard time”; the manufacturer gave only the tile size, 11.56 x 11.75 in (Revit Hatch Pattern).

ATG’s 2021 walkthrough shows the usual route: copy the running bond definition from Revit’s pattern file, change its height and length, save it, create a model pattern in the Fill Patterns dialog, assign it to the material, then set up the rendering appearance separately (ATG). That is acceptable for one brick. Where the tile changes from job to job, the 2022 poster notes, it is “a lot of time for just one little thing”. An Autodesk Ideas post from 2017 adds that a custom material library carries the Appearance tab but “does not hold the Surface and Cut patterns”, so a shared material returns without its linework.

Motif: set patterns on a material you already have

Our own add-in, for Windows. In Settings, under Add to Revit as, choose Existing material, pick the material from the open project, pick a library pattern and press Set patterns on material. Only the Surface and Cut patterns are written, into the Foreground slots; the appearance is left alone (the appearance asset’s id was the same before and after in Revit 2023). Limits: Cut is drafting only, drawn at paper size for the 1:N set in Settings (default 1:100), so it matches the tile at that scale only; your own fill patterns are never modified (a name clash becomes “(2)”); built for Revit 2021 to 2026, tested on Revit 2023, Revit LT untested. 3 free uses per UTC day with a free 3dshouse account, asked for at the first use; one press is one use.

Sources (all opened 2026-11-07)

• Autodesk help: Change the Graphics Properties of a Material
• Autodesk help: Apply a Fill Pattern
• Autodesk help: About Fill Patterns
• Autodesk help: About Drafting Patterns and Model Patterns
• ATG: Create New Material Types, Fill Patterns + Rendering Appearances in Revit (2021-07-07)
• Autodesk Community: Tile Patterns in Revit (2022-07-25)
• Autodesk Community: Revit Hatch Pattern (2025-04-16)
• Autodesk Ideas: Materials Library (.adsklib) (2017)
• cad-notes.com: Understanding Surface and Cut Patterns in Revit (2023-10-25)

FAQ

How do I change the hatch of a material that is already in the project?
Open Manage > Settings > Materials, select the material, open its Graphics tab, choose the foreground fill for each, then Apply and OK (Autodesk: Change the Graphics Properties of a Material). A pattern you need but do not have is built first under Manage > Additional Settings > Fill Patterns (ATG walkthrough, 2021).

Can the cut pattern be a model pattern?
Not in Revit 2023, as tested by the Motif team: Revit refused a model pattern in that slot with “The FillPattern target must be a drafting pattern”. Autodesk’s help pages opened do not address the point; cad-notes.com states that only drafting patterns work there. The Surface Pattern took either kind.

Why does a material taken from a shared library show no hatch?
An Autodesk Ideas post (2017; status “Gathering Support” when we opened it on 2026-11-07) says a custom library “does not hold the Surface and Cut patterns” of its materials and that the appearance asset “seems to only bring in the information” of the Appearance tab. We did not re-test current Revit versions.

Does changing the patterns change how the material renders?
No setting on the Graphics tab is the render look. Autodesk: “To change the appearance of a material in rendered images, change its render appearance.” Motif’s Existing material mode sends no appearance at all, so the texture stays.

What happens if the material I chose is no longer in the project?
Motif creates nothing; the add-in answers “The material “Name” is no longer in this project.” with the real name. In the Motif team’s Revit 2023 test the material count and the pattern count were unchanged after such a call.

Does Motif overwrite fill patterns I made myself?
No. In Revit 2023 a user pattern of the same name and type stayed untouched, and the new one was added as “Name (2)” with a warning. A pattern Motif made earlier is reused when its lines are equal and replaced in place when they differ.

How many times can I use it for free?
3 free uses per UTC day with a free 3dshouse account, asked for at the first use. One use is one press that sets patterns on a material; opening the window, browsing and previewing are not counted.