I can't seem to figure out what is probably a very easy thing to overlook.

I am using the patterns like dots/brick/checker etc to do shading tests but I can't seem to get them to simply be just bump maps.

I don't know what to hook up to the principled shader to see the bump.

I can hook the “amount” up to color, roughness etc and it works as intended. But it doesn't seem to want to hook up to any bump parameter without a red warning sign or it just not doing anything.

I see the displacement node in the lists but couldn't make that work with patterns.

As soon as I just put an image path in the bump I see bump. But I am simply wanting to use the patterns for bump or displacement.

Where am I over thinking this? Or is there some conversion node or attribute I am not hooking up right?

Thanks for any help

I have no idea, either. You'd think this would be a simple thing.
I did find this however:
https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/houdini-16-masterclass-custom-shading/ [www.sidefx.com]

Inside a Materialbuilder, you can use a ripple pattern (or whatever) and plug it into a displacement, dispP and dispN into the P and N of an output (set to Displace) and into a the collect. You'll also have to create a properties and ad displacement bounds, set it to 1 and plug that into the collect as well.

it's in the video around the 22 min mark.

T