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CAD systems in Fashion and

Textile Industry
Jimmy Lam
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
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Agenda
CAD background.
CAD in Fashion & Textile industry
Woven design; knitted design; printed design and
fashion design
CAD in Garment Production
Specification sheet; grading and marker making
3-D body scanner
Virtual shopping & e-Commerce
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Computer Aided Design (CAD)
Background (I)

Emerged in the 1970s

Original functions drafting and technical
For aerospace industry, car industry
To replace manual drawing by computer-based tools.
E.g replace typer-writer by computer-based word
processing, MS Word
Apply to garment industry in late 70s in:
pattern-making, grading, maker-making areas
WHY and How?
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CAD background (II)
The widespread use of CAD has enable
design firms to be more efficient and
competitive

Todays CAD software is available as either
industrial or commercial

Industrial software focuses on specific industry
need and often cost higher than commercial
ones
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Systems used in Fashion
and Textile design
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In woven textile designs
What are the special features need for
woven textile design?

Yarn dyes, plain weaves, jacquards or
dobbies could be designed using CAD

The designers can be employed by a
manufacturer, design house, textile producer
or work freelance

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Woven design
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In knitted design
What are the special
features needed for
knitted design?

Software is used to create
and modify knitted fabrics
and garment parts

Some systems generate
preview on screen of
resulting design effects,
with all stitch information
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In printed design
Are any unique features for printed fabric
design? How?
Involves the development and manipulation
of a motif
Repeat
Generating colourways
Colour seperation

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Repeats
Half drop and half tone are
Unique CAD feature on textile printing
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Colour separation
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In fashion design
Illustration system
Texture mapping/
draping
Virtual imaging
Embroidery system
What special features are needed
For Fashion design?
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Garment Production
What CAD features are required for garment production?

How it can be applied in cutting, sewing and
production operation?

Can it be used for production control, cost control?


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Garment manufacturing (I)
Specifications and Costing
This systems store style information including:

Flat sketch
Size spec
Trim requirements
Size grade charts
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Specifications sheet
created by SpecView
pre-production system
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What are the essential
Requirements for grading
System?
The system
automatically produce
pattern shapes in all
the pre-specified sizes



Garment Manufacturing (2)
Grading Systems
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Can computer marker
system replace human
judgement?
Marker arrangement of all
pattern parts for max. fabric
utilization

The system indicates the
percentage of waste

Automatic matching of
stripes and plaids is
common to most systems
Garment Manufacturing (3)
Marker Making Systems
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Websites of CAD Retailers
www.fashionflash.com
www.monarchcad.com
www.lectra.com

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Questions
What are the specific requirements on CAD
system for 1) woven design; 2) knitted design
and 3) printed design?
What are the specific requirements on CAD
system on garment manufacturing systems
for 1) product specification; 2) grading and 3)
marker making

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Advanced Topics on CAD
3-D Body Scanner for e-Commerce
Virtual Shopping on Internet
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Electronic body scanning
Advanced CAD for e-Commerce
Why we need 3-D body
scanning for e-
Commerce?
A new trend in
customizing clothing

After scanned,
customers could used
the measurement
information for internet
shopping e.g. ez-size
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Applications for 3-D body
scanner
Retail E-Commerce
Apparel Industry
Clothing Design
Anthropological Studies
Automotive Design
Ergonomic Research
Computer Game Development
Medical Applications
Dress Form Manufacture
Personal Fitness Industry
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Hows 3-D body scanner work?
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Example of 3-D body scanner
From US TC
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Example from Cyberware
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Virtual Shopping
Released by the military to
show capabilities of
scanning and 3-D viewing
with garment application

E.g. Brook Brothers digital
tailoring

http://www.brooksbrother.co
m/
http://www.cyberware.com


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Questions
What is 3-D body scanner?
What are the advantages of 3-D body
scanner?
Are there any limitations for 3-D body
scanner?
Why virtual shopping is still not popular in
Hong Kong?