by [TC]²
A monthly column of technology rambling, rumination and reality
By: Jud Early, Corporate Vice President & CTO, [TC]²
October 2004
Hello faithful readers,
It's been another busy month here, and with holidays just around the corner, the question of “where did this year go?” is again raised.
By the time you read this, the [TC]² Digital Printing Conference will be taking place. With registered attendees from three continents, and a full lineup of presentations and demonstrations as well as workshops, there is something for every person with an interest in coloring textiles with digital techniques. I'll be covering the event for Techexchange, and will report in the column next month
www.techexchange.com news
To keep everyone up to date on the status of www.techexchange.com , I reported last month that some of the features of the site had become “broken” when the hosting service experienced a server crash, and then restored files from an old backup. Since that occurrence, we have been able to restore the Tech Talk Forum, and the database that supports it, but the application that manages the ads placed by our advertisers is still not functional and the ads are running free of charge for now. We have combined the two components of the site that had previously been served from two hosting services, and it is operational under our control at our master host account where [TC]².com and SizeUSA.com are also hosted. The search function is being installed and debugged now, so within the next couple of weeks, www.techexchange.com will be back together and fully functional. We plan some changes to the home page layout, and the Tech Talk Forum. One of the changes is to provide an open, unmoderated forum where readers can meet to exchange ideas and to assist each other with questions and answers. At least once each week I'll pose a question to the readership, and see if the responses hit any hot buttons. This is a future change. For now we are working to restore complete function to the site before making cosmetic or structural changes.
Has conventional 2D CAD reached the end of its development road? Last year I had the opportunity to meet with several vendors who provide CAD systems for apparel, furniture and automotive industries, and to discuss the next areas of development for 2D CAD. In travels this summer to Asia , I also spoke with business leaders and suppliers of technology to the sewn products industry, and the question posed above began to form in my mind.
For those of us who have spent a majority of our career in the industry, watching the evolution of CAD has been both fascinating and frustrating. From the early days, when manipulation of apparel patterns was largely manual, with a computer assist, to today's level of technology, where once a pattern is created, the system can provide grading based on rules learned from experience, can provide patterns with perimeter outlines, grain lines, sew lines, darts and notches, and can place these pattern pieces into a marker automatically. With fabric cuttable width known the nested patterns are optimized to obtain the greatest fabric efficiency. This is light years away from the early developments by commercial vendors and private company proprietary systems.
There is an Achilles heel however. The original pattern must be created by one skilled in garment fitting, and who understands the fluidity of fabric drape as it is applied to the contours of the human body. Such knowledge is gained over time, with education in the theory most valuable, but incomplete until one has made their own mistakes in practical application and has learned from them. In similar fashion, (no pun intended) the need for custom patterns presents additional challenge. It is the rare human who is perfectly symmetrical, so the fitter, tailor or dressmaker who drafts custom patterns must be able to compensate for these anomalies when they are encountered. The CAD vendors have come to the aid of those who need to make custom patterns with friendlier means to input the garment variables, and which then alter an existing pattern according to the input dimensions. Well… not quite. Here is where the skill of the patternmaker and the skill of the alterations specialist must come together in a complex set of alteration rules. Once such rules are generated and validated, they can be re-used each time a body requiring the same alteration comes along.
As we were in the developmental stage of the 3D Body Scanner at [TC]², the need for a simpler approach to alteration rules was recognized. In meetings with executives from CAD vendor companies, I repeated my soapbox mantra: “Give us a more intelligent system. We need the inherent knowledge that pattern makers and alterations specialists have in a package that is easy to use and can be modified by one who is not a skilled expert”. I know this repeated barrage put me into the list of kooks and the uninformed, but after one particularly persuasive argument to add intelligence to their product offering, the president, whom I had been wheedling, sent two people to meet with me; it turned out not to be to collaborate on the industry's needs as I saw them, but to convince me that I didn't know the power of their system and how it would do what I wanted if only we had the experts to develop the alteration rules. Point missed. I gave up.
With the availability of 3D scanners from multiple vendors, the industry began to see pattern fitting in a new light. Early pioneers saw the chance to make clones of their fit models, creating mannequins from scanned data and producing molded copies of the model for use in locations where fit needed to be checked on the model, but where the model could not go, or would go at great cost. The convenience of having an accurate form in multiple places at the same time was a benefit of 3D technology. Patterns were developed in the same way, but could be placed on the body and pinned or a complete garment fitted at any time. The shortening of the product development cycle had its first technology boost.
Back in the 1980's Computer Design Inc. had a vision of unwrapping patterns from the human body in 3D. Many of us who plied the aisles of trade shows in those years will remember the short, boy-sized mannequin with muslin patterns pinned onto the form, and discussion with CDI personnel about computational requirements to create patterns. At that time work-station class machines could barely meet the MIPS needed to perform the pattern translation, and such machines were more in the realm of science than production. As personal computers became more powerful, capability developed, but not before CDI was acquired by Lectra Systemes of France . The incorporation of the CDI technology was not immediate, and we wondered about the plans and future of the pattern technology.
The 3D body scanner also made available point clouds of the human body, and other researchers began to explore how to obtain patterns from 3D data. Edith Gazzoulo, working from Cyberware data obtained her Master's degree with such a project. Despite this early work the ability to quickly derive flat patterns from 3D data remained elusive. During the dot.com days of the late 1990's Browzware came on the scene with a tool for 3D visualization of products that were already in existence. From that beginning, Optitex was launched and began development of an interactive design environment, where the user could move easily between 2D patterns and a 3D form, and using an automatic stitching tool, apply the patterns to the 3D form in real time, where fit could be appraised and where sometimes the body poked through the garment! PAD Systems, and Lectra also developed interactive 2D to 3D design applications. Gerber has just integrated the Browzware visualization with AccuMark, so all major players in the spaced have offerings of 3D design and/or visualization.
Other developers have taken the route of drawing from the 3D data to create a first pattern. Couture designer and technology researcher, Alexandre Kung whose company, TPC Ltd. in Hong Kong has a working application for slacks, jeans and shirts, D-Three a start-up with roots in nautical architecture has an application that borrows from ship hull design to obtain 3D geometry and a flattener that takes the 3D shape and flattens it into a 2D pattern, currently has an application for jeans. [TC]², drawing on knowledge of the body in 3D form, has incorporated into its scanner software, the ability to create slopers from body data, allowing the designer to add ease, change silhouette, and specify more or fewer darts than the automated software determines are needed. The output from this system is in the form of .dxf file that can be read into CAD systems for final style elements such as pockets, loops or other features that are not size dependent. Available for pants, bodice and skirt, jeans will be added to the capability in 2005. Patterns are output in seconds, allowing a quick review.
With so much emphasis on the use of 3D, my question to you is whether development of new features in 2D CAD systems has reached the end of the road. I'd like to hear from anyone who wishes to add to the discussion or who has an opinion that disagrees with my contention. If you wish to comment on this column, please send your comments to jearly@tc2.com . In the subject line, please put 3D-2D. I will create a mail rule to place all replies in one folder, and will share your responses next month.
So long for now,
Jud