Using Illustrator to Draw a Continuous Line Pattern

[SwimmingFish]

Hello Everyone,

I'm a bit new to the Illustrator game.  What I am trying to do is create weather fronts in a simplified manner.  Currently I have to pencil in a line and slowly attach the appropriate semicircles/triangles to simulate what the front should look like.  An example of what I am talking about can be found at the link below. 

http://okfirst.mesonet.org/train/meteorology/graphics/Fronts.gif 

As you can imagine, this does not give me a uniform shape as it relies on best guesses for placement.  I wanted to ask if there was a way I can create a base pattern, like a line with one triangle, and use a pencil type tool to string multiple of these patterns together.  I would also need the pattern to be bendable though, which may be difficult.

Any help on the subject is appreciated.

Thank you!

[Monika Gause]

Brushes are meant for this.

If you don't mind that your shapes are a little distorted in curves, try a pattern brush

If you need the shapes to be exact, you will need a slightly more complex approach: the path has to have two strokes: one normal stroke and a brush, but this time a scatter brush

How to work with brushes in Illustrator

[Kris Hunt · Accepted solution]

Create art like this (invisible square bounding boxes are around each element to keep the corner elements aligned with the main elements):

Then create pattern brushes from it like this:

The result:

[jand26448121]

Hey guys,

your post helped me tremendously to create my Weather Fronts brushes for AI. For anyone who could use it I share my brushes. Cheers,

Janek

AI Brush file:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1T9XgkeaQE72rOiidFXrxOsGbXDskmuG4

[Monika Gause]

That's very kind of you. Thanks so much.

[StrormChaserlm]

How do I get this to work on photoshop 2023?

[Monika Gause]

You mean that brush?

Not at all.