Pattern Balls (PBalls)

A Pattern Ball is a hybrid. It combines the speed and cueing information of an ABall with the Aiming Line and Track Line capabilities of a CBall. That dual function is exactly what makes PBalls valuable for Pattern Breakdown Drills.

Add the next available PBall with Ctrl-n. Each PBall is numbered sequentially — P1, P2, P3 — indicating shot order through a run.

How PBalls Work in a Pattern Drill

In a Pattern Breakdown Drill, the user is guided shot-by-shot through a sequence. Each PBall does two things at once:

1. It acts as an ABall for the current shot — showing the user speed and tip placement.
2. It acts as a CBall target for the previous shot — showing where the cue ball needs to land.

This is the key insight behind PBalls. You're not just showing where the cue ball ends up; you're showing where it needs to end up and what the user should do with it once it gets there.

Warning: Pattern Breakdown Drills require Track Lines for every PBall-to-OBall-to-landing-zone shot. Using Aiming Lines alone will cause the drill to fail to cycle correctly.

Speed and Cueing Configuration

PBalls use the same speed slider and cue tip circle as ABalls. Configuration works identically — Left-Click-and-Drag the slider for speed, Left-Click-and-Drag the black circle for tip placement.

For a full explanation of the speed and cueing indicators, see Aiming Balls (ABalls).

Right-Click Menu

The PBall Right-Click Menu includes everything an ABall has, plus two additional CBall-specific functions:

Track Line behavior for PBalls is identical to that of CBalls. For full Track Line documentation, see Track Lines.