To use something as the template or model for the way in which something else is created or developed. The mayor's ambitious social security plan is patterned after a similar system already in place in Sweden.You can pattern your lesson plans after ones from previous teachers.
pattern something on something
to use something as a model for something else. Try to pattern your sales speech on Jane's. She's got it just right. We patterned our approach on Bob's.
pattern on
or pattern after
v.
To form, develop, or found something on the basis of something else; fashion something after something else: The country patterned its legal system on French civil law. These lesson plans are patterned after the ones I learned at graduate school.