I'm looking for an easy way to do this, thought that editing the patch as a text file might be the answer.

or is there another way?

Hi soapdodger:
Recently @newlin posted a patch that created some gem objects dynamically. Here's the link to the thread:

http://puredata.hurleur.com/sujet-6410-generative-gem-patches

I recommend you to put a small number, like 10 or 20, into the message object that is pointed at at the top before creating the gem window. Otherwise you could get pd stuck.
You could create one array inside each subpatch the same way as it's done there, and naming them automatically. Anyway, I recommend you: start with a few subpatches. It looks like the Pd tcl/tk interface seems to be a little unstable sometimes if you try to force it.
Best regards,

Sumidero

here's an old patch i just dug up with a search of this forum:

http://puredata.hurleur.com/sujet-250-pairs-tables

thanks !