Analyze Repeats
What It Does
Analyze Repeats examines your threading and treadling to find repeating patterns — motifs that appear multiple times. It identifies the smallest repeating unit, shows how many times it repeats, and highlights all the instances directly on your draft.
This is invaluable for understanding the structure of a draft, especially one you've imported or inherited. It answers questions like: "What's the basic repeat in this threading?" and "Does the treadling follow a regular cycle?"
Opening Analyze Repeats
Ribbon: Tools tab > Analyze Repeats button
Analyze Repeats opens as a separate window so you can interact with your draft while viewing the results.
The Analyze Repeats Window
Analysis Range
At the top, you choose what to analyze and which portion of the draft:
Analyze Warp (Threading) Check this to analyze your threading for repeating patterns. You can specify a range of threads to analyze — by default, the full threading is selected.
From / To — Limit the analysis to a section of your threading. Useful when you know there's a border or hem section you want to exclude.
Analyze Weft (Treadling) Check this to analyze your treadling. Same range options as warp.
You can analyze both at the same time, or just one.
Display Options
Three checkboxes control how results are shown:
Phase Variants When checked, shows rotated versions of the same pattern as separate entries. For example, a 4-pick twill sequence (1-2-3-4) could also appear starting at pick 2 (2-3-4-1) — these are phase-shifted variants of the same pattern. By default, these are collapsed into a single entry.
Chain Details When checked, adds detailed location information to each motif, showing exactly where contiguous chains of the pattern occur. For example: [10–95 ×3, 97–180 ×3] means the pattern repeats 3 times from thread 10 to 95, then 3 more times from 97 to 180.
Contiguous Only When checked, filters the results to show only patterns where every instance is back-to-back with no gaps. This finds patterns that tile perfectly — useful when you're looking for the fundamental repeat rather than scattered motifs.
Custom Limits
For advanced use, you can override the automatic detection settings:
Height — Control the minimum and maximum pattern size to search for
Min Repeats — Require patterns to appear at least 2, 3, or 4 times to be listed
By default, TempoWeave uses intelligent heuristics that work well for most drafts. You typically only need custom limits for very large or unusual drafts.
Results
Summary
After clicking Analyze Repeats, the summary section shows a quick overview:
A perfect repeat means the entire threading (or treadling) is one pattern repeated evenly from start to finish with no leftover threads. This is the most common case in traditional weaving.
If no perfect repeat exists, TempoWeave looks for a "core" — the longest section that does repeat perfectly, with irregular edges trimmed. The summary reports how many threads were trimmed from each end.
Motif Lists
Below the summary, two lists show the detected patterns:
Warp Motifs — Repeating patterns in the threading Weft Motifs — Repeating patterns in the treadling
Each entry shows:
52 threads — The pattern is 52 threads wide
19× — It appears 19 times
covers 988 — These instances span 988 threads total (overlapping areas counted once)
period 52 — The pattern repeats every 52 threads, meaning instances are evenly spaced
What is "period"?
The period tells you if the pattern appears at regular intervals:
With a period (e.g., "period 44") — The pattern occurs on a predictable schedule, like a treadling that repeats every 44 picks. This usually indicates a fundamental structural repeat.
Without a period — The pattern appears multiple times but at irregular positions. This is common in designs with borders, hems, or freeform elements where a motif is used "as needed."
Clicking a Motif
Click any motif in the list to highlight all its instances on your draft. The threading or treadling area shows colored highlighting over every place that pattern appears. This makes it easy to see the repeat structure at a glance.
Click Clear Highlight to remove the highlighting.
How to Use It
Finding the Basic Repeat
Open Analyze Repeats from the Tools tab
Leave both Warp and Weft checked with the full range
Click Analyze Repeats
Look at the summary — if there's a perfect repeat, that's your fundamental repeat unit
Click the top motif in each list to see it highlighted on your draft
Analyzing a Specific Section
Open Analyze Repeats
Set the From / To range to cover just the section you're interested in — for example, skip the first 20 threads if they're a border
Click Analyze Repeats
The analysis considers only the specified range
Step-by-Step Example: Understanding an Imported Draft
You've imported a WIF file and want to understand its threading structure:
Open Analyze Repeats from the Tools tab
Check Analyze Warp (Threading) and leave the full range
Click Analyze Repeats
The summary shows: "Perfect repeat: 24 threads × 12"
This tells you the threading has a 24-thread repeat that cycles 12 times across 288 threads
Click the "24 threads" motif to see it highlighted on the threading
Now you can identify the repeat unit and understand the draft's structure
Step-by-Step Example: Checking Treadling Consistency
You've been editing a treadling and want to verify it still has a clean repeat:
Open Analyze Repeats
Check only Analyze Weft (Treadling)
Click Analyze Repeats
If the summary shows a perfect repeat, your treadling is consistent
If it shows "No perfect repeat" or a core with trimmed edges, check where the irregularity is — click motifs to highlight and locate the break in the pattern
Print Block Profile
The Print Block Profile button generates a printable condensed view of your draft's repeating pattern blocks, with labels and repeat counts. This is useful for:
Creating a reference sheet to keep beside your loom
Documenting the structure of a draft for teaching or sharing
Visualizing color blocks alongside the repeat structure
Tips
Start simple — For most drafts, just click Analyze Repeats with the defaults. The automatic heuristics work well.
Perfect repeat is your friend — If the analysis finds a perfect repeat, that's the single most important piece of information. It tells you the minimum repeat unit for both warping and treadling.
Use the range for complex drafts — If your draft has a border or hem with a different structure, exclude it from the analysis by setting the range to just the pattern area.
Contiguous Only for clean repeats — Enable the Contiguous Only filter to see only patterns that tile without gaps. This cuts through noise and shows the true structural repeats.
Click to highlight — The highlighting feature is one of the most useful parts. Clicking a motif instantly shows you where and how often it appears in your draft.
Works with liftplan — If your draft is in liftplan mode, the analysis converts the liftplan to a sequence for pattern matching. The results are the same either way.
Copy results — Use the Copy button to copy the analysis results as text, which you can paste into notes or share with other weavers.
Quick Reference
Analyze Warp
Checked
Full range or custom From/To
Analyze Weft
Checked
Full range or custom From/To
Phase Variants
Off
Show/hide phase-shifted versions
Chain Details
Off
Show/hide location chains
Contiguous Only
Off
Filter to perfectly tiling patterns only
Custom Limits
Off
Override auto heuristics for height range and min repeats
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