MadPatterns - Why won't these expand?

[varxtis]

A while ago I was asking about patterns, problems I was running into. During the thread @Monika Gause suggested I look at the MadPatterns Templates. They were amazing and beautiful. But I could never get them to work the way I needed. I need to be able to expand the patterns and export them as vector swatches, to be able to scale them up and down freely. I can't do that with the rasterized approach thats suggested by MadPatterns.
I found this tutorial by Helen Bradley that goes through the whole process from start to finish. Im wanting to use shapes (Lines, rectangles, elipse) and compound shapes that Ive made like logos and icons and whatever, to create patterns. But when I do this, "Expand Appearance" is greyed out. If I use strictly the path tool and brush tool, using the same template, exact same method, "Expand Appearance" is an available option and everything works.

Why is "Expand Appearance" available when I use brush and pen on these MadPattern Templates,  but not when using shape tools or predesigned shapes/images?

Heres a video version of this post. It's 3min long

[Monika Gause]

I have not watched the video.

In order to get "Expand Appearance", objects that have appearances applied to them need to be selected. So perhaps it's about what you have selected. The madpattern templates make heavy use of appearances applied to layers and masks. Please look in the layers panel and locate the items that have an appearance applied. You need to click on the target symbol (the circle) and then when there is a special appearance aplied you can also expand the appearance. The target symbol looks differently when there are appearances.

[varxtis]

Sorry about the late reply, and  sorry for clicking "correct answer" pre-maturely. Thank you very much for your followup and response.
Ive tried four different methods of creating the pattern to experiment. 1.) I carried over shapes that I made from another project. Could not "Expand Appearance" 2.) I drew the shapes from scratch using the different shapes tools. Even after expanding the shapes fill/shape, could not "Expand Appearance" 3.) I drew Shapes and lines just using the pen tool. Even after expanding the shapes and paths fill/shape, Could not "Expand Appearance" 4.) I used the brush tool. I'm able to "Expand Appearance" as desired without any expand fill/shapes needed.

Im confident that the issue isn't with any of the pre-existing layers or their Appearances that are paert of the template. I honestly hope that Im wrong, that is about the template layers. I feel like it'd be easier to fix, but at the same time, Ive had similar issues with "Expanding Appearance" option and could probably gain a lot to understand it better.

[Monika Gause]

Without having your ai file and without knowing exactly what you want to expand, this cannot be solved.

[varxtis]

Sry for the late reply. Thats fair enough. So, If you'll allow me, I'll try to create a small project to share. But it's going to be tricky (for me). Maybe I'll have 3 layers to indicate the three different methods Im trying. But ultimately its as you say, understing what Im trying to acheive, which I didn't explain very well in the video. Again, if you allow me, I'll make very small clip to show what Im wanting as an end result. I just can't do it at the moment. Thank you for your patience and help.

[varxtis]

Hey Monika, I hope you are well. I couldn't make a project file like I said I would. I mean, I could, and I tried. . . But since this was for explaination purposes, I found it incredibly hard to make one straight forward.
So . . . . . . . . Tada!!! . . . . . Another video. Its only 3mins. But I figure you're very busy. So, I don't expect anything soon. Im just really thankful for your ongoing assistance and patience! Thank you!!

https://youtu.be/Sg26zMTuXDc

[Monika Gause]

I need an AI file.

[varxtis]

Thank you for your patience.

The following link takes you to Madpattern p4g_ait Demo.ai . I hope this helps. Again, following Helen Bradley explaination of making vector patterns, the linked document is already at the point where "Dummy Path" and "Clipping Mask" are unlocked.

Here is the original base template p4g.ait

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

Interesting. Thank you for the example. I was tempted to blame the clipping mask, but somehow it must be caused by the presence of just transform effects. I added a Roughnen  effect to it that just does nothing (with values of 0/0) and then I could use Expand appearance.

What you can do is use "Flatten transparency" instead.

[varxtis]

Thank you! Adding the roughen effect did the job, and then I just had to delete all the Clippling masks shapes. I try to Flatten Transparency, but no matter what I did (hid/revealed) or what I selected, it was a mess that either duplicated the clipping mask(s) with effect duplicated too, would only show a small patch of the patter, leaving a very very odd shape.

I really am curious what goin on with that pattern though. why Expand Appearance isnt an option.

Thank you again for your help!