Click on Drive above to create!

TileDrive is a drawing tool that uses tiles to make patterns. These tiles are regular polygons which means that all their side lengths are the same and all their angles are the same. In particular, this means that a regular four-sided polygon is not just a rhombus having all sides with equal side length but it is square since all the angles are also the same. In general, these regular polygons have a symmetric or balanced appearance like bumpy wheels.

Connecting tiles is more like driving along a path of stepping stones. A sequence of tiles can placed by selecting each type of tile you want to add. The direction can be changed at each tile by turning right (clockwise by one side) or left (counter-clockwise by one side). For instance, a wiggly snake of squares can be created by clicking on the square button and with a few right and left clicks (circled in red on the picture of the controls to the left).

There is also a painting way to drive. You can "paint" new tiles frow existing tiles — click/touch a tile and drag outward across the edge you want to connect to until the desired tile appears when you release the new tile becomes part of the pattern with the same colour as the original tile. Just click on a new colour to change colour.

Another way to help with the creation and communication of patterns a shorthand language is described below.

1. Tile shorthand (instructions)
   • tiles: 3 4 5 6 7 8 for triangle, square, pentagon, heptagon (7gon), and octagon
   • colors: r y b o g p l i t for red, yellow, blue, orange, green, purple, olive, pink, and transparent
   • turning: < > for left-turn and right-turn

   By using shorthand code, a snake made with squares can be described like 44>444 >444 <4. The turning can also be done with "." and "," for ">" and "<" saving you from using the SHIFT key.

   To see this in action, click on send below to send it over to the Drive screen.

   • A square snake
     send 44.444.444,4
   • A pentagon snake
     send 55.5,55,,55
   • An elaborate green snake with a red tongue
     send 5g.45,5,5,,5.47.3r,3
2. Branching out from a path can make cool patterns. To do this, you can click on any existing tile and start another path. In the shorthand, you will see curly brackets, { }, but all you really need to remember is to click on the pattern.
   • branching square paths
     send 4y4{4b4}{,4r4.44}.44,44
   • a pointy star
     send 5o{,4y3r}{.4y3r}{..4y3r}{,,4y3r}4y3r
3. Saving your patterns can be done in two ways:
   • Clicking on the "!" takes you to a printing / sharing friendly version of your pattern (if you click on it again, it toggles between a coloured version and an outlined version)
   • Clicking on any of the ten "x"-banks saves your pattern. To retrieve your saves click on mini images above the "x"-bank buttons. Be careful when you do this since it will add your pattern to what is currently on the screen (* this will be useful later!). To erase the screen you can click on "c" to clear before you add your saved version.
4. The Gallery of patterns has some examples
   • "-" and "n" buttons allow you to browse through the patterns
   • "h" button helps with the current pattern in the gallery by putting on top of your pattern. This will should help with showing how your pattern differs from the gallery pattern.
5. Viewing options
   • "~" button toggles softer colours
   • "^" button toggles tile arrows, which show the initial direction when it was drawn.
   • left slider is used to scale the pattern. This allows for bigger patterns to be made.
6. Animation
   • "@" button animates the pattern by walking through the tiles on the screen
   • "#" and "$" buttons allow you to step through the animation
   • right slider allows you to jump to any point in the animation
7. Stuck? Bored? click send below and click on the miniture patterns above xA-xG
   send q5y5b,xa 4o6b,xb 4o6b.xc 3g3,5lxd 5,5.xe {4o446b},xf 4o6b.4o6b.4o6b.4o6b.4o6b.4o6b..xg

Use a keyboard to speed up your Driving and learn the shorthand.