Random bitplanes of various densities and designs suffice for experiments with the majority of automata; there are a few, such as Life and WireWorld , which often require elaborately prepared bitplanes for their original configurations. One way to obtain them is to include generators for specific patterns in the submenu for that automaton, or to creat the pattern by using the editor.
Once created, it is preferable to save the pattern, rather than having to generate it anew in a future session; conversely, it is desirable to load bitplanes which have been prepared previously, whatever their source.
The option f1 scans the current directory for any files with the extension PAT, listing them on a newly cleared screen. Since the symbol Y is used elsewhere in CAMEX to create bitplanes, it can be used here with a hexadecimal argument to load the file marked by the cursor into that combination of bitplanes.
Where there is no uncertainty, INSERT will load plane 0. To load multiple planes, usually from separate files, they should have names which embed the argument for y. Such a convention seems better than creating a plethora of extensions.