• If the features of a group reference a pattern, you can create a pattern of the group referencing that base pattern (that is, a group reference pattern).

• If patterned groups are unpatterned, each group member behaves like a group of copied features. For dimension patterns, variable dimensions again become variable dimensions and can be modified individually. Other dimensions are still shared by the group unless you ungroup them and make them independently modifiable using the Make Indep option. You can delete an individual group to create an irregular pattern-like setting.

• You cannot ungroup patterned groups. You must first unpattern the groups, then ungroup them. The process of unpatterning and ungrouping features does not automatically give them individual dimensions. The original parent dimensions selected for the group and pattern still control all the features. To make them independently modifiable, use the Make Indep option.

• You cannot pattern a feature that belongs to a group pattern. The workaround is to modify the number of group members to one, pattern the feature, then pattern the group again.

• If you redefined a feature in a group pattern, the system will recreate the pattern and assign new IDs to pattern instances. Children of the original pattern members will fail because they lost their references.

• When you replace a patterned group, the pattern becomes inactive.