3D CAD systems for the clothing industry

Abstract

The approaches for designing virtual garments may be categorised as ‘2D to 3D’ and ‘3D to 2D’. The former refers to draping flat digital pattern pieces on a virtual mannequin, and the later indicates the development of clothing design on a realistic body and subsequent flattening into 2D pattern pieces. Several computer-aided design (CAD) systems for garment visualisation in space from flat patterns have already been introduced into the clothing industry. Any industrial application of the pattern flattening technique is yet to be made, due to the non-availability of an appropriate CAD system on the market. This article reviews the historical developments of 3D CAD systems for the clothing industry, and assesses the features of currently available systems on market.

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3D CAD systems for the clothing industry
Abu Sadat Muhammad Sayema; Richard Kennona; Nick Clarkea
a School of Materials, Textiles and Paper, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
First published on: 04 March 2010
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3D CAD systems for the clothing industry
Abu Sadat Muhammad Sayem*, Richard Kennon and Nick Clarke
School of Materials, Textiles and Paper, The University of Manchester, P.O. Box 88, Sackville Street,
Manchester M60 1QD, UK
(Received 11 December 2009; final version received 9 February 2010)
The approaches for designing virtual garments may be categorised as ‘2D to 3D’ and ‘3D to 2D’. The former refers
to draping flat digital pattern pieces on a virtual mannequin, and the later indicates the development of clothing
design on a realistic body and subsequent flattening into 2D pattern pieces. Several computer-aided design (CAD)
systems for garment visualisation in space from flat patterns have already been introduced into the clothing industry.
Any industrial application of the pattern flattening technique is yet to be made, due to the non-availability of an
appropriate CAD system on the market. This article reviews the historical developments of 3D CAD systems for the
clothing industry, and assesses the features of currently available systems on market.
Key words: 3D CAD; virtual clothing prototyping; virtual mannequin
1. Introduction
Today’s clothing industry increasingly prefers to use
computer-aided design (CAD) techniques for both
fashion design and pattern creation as it offers greater
efficiency and time-saving solutions to many compli-
cated tasks as well as facilitating Internet-based
communication amongst designers, manufactures and
retailers. Two-dimensional (2D) graphics software
packages such as Illustrator (Adobe Inc.) and Corel-
DRAW (Corel Corp.) or packages that have been
customised for the fashion industry such as Kaledo
Style (Lectra), Vision fashion studio (Gerber), Tex-
Design (Koppermann), etc. are also being used around
the world. Specialised 2D CAD software, including
packages such as cad.assyst (Assyst-Bullmer), Modaris
(Lectra), Accumark (Gerber), Master Pattern Design
(PAD System), TUKAcad (Tukatech), GRAFIS (Soft-
ware Dr K. Friedrich), Audaces Apparel (Audaces),
COAT (COAT- EDV-Systeme) and Fashion CAD
(Cad Cam Solutions), support geometrical pattern
drafting from first principles using only anthropo-
metric measurements of the target size and shape. With
the help of a ‘digitiser’ it is possible to input existing
block patterns into virtually any of the various
software packages that are currently available, and
thus an extensive library of patterns in many sizes can
be efficiently stored on the computer for future use.
A set of three-dimensional (3D) CAD software
packages for virtual prototyping of clothing is
now commercially available. A review of published
literature has identified two distinct approaches to
clothing design taken into consideration while devel-
oping 3D CAD systems. These two techniques may
be categorised as the ‘2D to 3D’ approach, which
refers to draping digital 2D pattern pieces onto a 3D
mannequin, and the ‘3D to 2D’ approach which
indicates the development of clothing design on a 3D
body and subsequently flattening the shape into 2D
pattern pieces. A combination of these approaches is
also proposed in some CAD systems. This article
reviews the historical development of 3D CAD systems
for the clothing industry, examines the available 3D
CAD systems and considers their facilities and how
they might be effectively exploited.
2. Historical developments
Tables 1, 2 and 3 summarise the historical develop-
ments in 3D clothing systems and their major features.
One of the early 3D CAD systems for garment
design was demonstrated by Hinds and McCartney in
the beginning of the 1990s (Hinds and McCartney
et al. 1990; Hinds et al. 1992). Their system contained a
virtual mannequin for use as a design platform, created
by scanning a tailor’s dummy, and it used a digitiser as
an input device for presenting garment panels onto
the virtual mannequin (Hinds et al. 1992). This early
version of their CAD system could develop and
visualise 3D garments, which could automatically
adapt the dimensions and the surface geometry of the
*Corresponding author. Email: abusadat.sayem@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education
Vol. 3, No. 2, July 2010, 45–53
ISSN 1754-3266 print/ISSN 1754-3274 online
Ó2010 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/17543261003689888
http://www.informaworld.com
Downloaded By: [Sayem, Abu Sadat Muhammad] At: 10:44 11 June 2010

Table 1. Developments in 3D clothing CAD systems (1990–2000).
Developers
Hinds and
McCartney 1990
Hinds
et al. 1992
Okabe
et al. 1992
Ito
et al. 1992
Fozzard and
Rawling 1991–1992
Matsuura
1993
Rasdomakin
1995
Kang and
Kim, 2000
MacCartney
et al. 2000
Features
Non-resizable virtual mannequin Ö ÖÖÖ Ö Ö Ö Ö
Resizable virtual mannequin Ö
‘2D to 3D’ design approach ÖÖ
‘3D to 2D’ design approach Ö
Combined design approach Ö Ö
Realistic cloth simulation ÖÖ Ö Ö Ö
3D blocks allowing modification ÖÖ
3D grading
Sketch-based technique ÖÖ
Table 2. Developments in 3D clothing CAD Systems (2001–2005).
Developers
Kim and
Kang 2002
Wang
et al. 2002
Chiricota
2001
Fuhrmann
et al. 2003
Thalman and
Volino 2005
Luo and
Yuen 2005
Fontana
et al. 2005
Fang
et al. 2005
Features
Non-resizable virtual mannequin ÖÖ Ö Ö Ö Ö
Resizable virtual mannequin
‘2D to 3D’ design approach ÖÖ Ö Ö
‘3D to 2D’ design approach ÖÖ
Combined design approach
Realistic cloth simulation ÖÖÖÖ
3D blocks allowing modification ÖÖ
3D grading Ö
Sketch-based technique
46 A.S.M. Sayem et al.
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virtual mannequin in the work station. It did not
require the designer to insert the dimensions of the
garments into the system.
Later in 2000, they proposed a CAD system with a
new process of garment design covering both ‘3D to
2D’ and ‘2D to 3D’ approaches (McCartney et al.
2000). This system comprised three key elements: a
design interface for facilitating the creation of 3D
garment specifications by the designer, a module for
pattern flattening and a drape engine based on the
computational algorithm for accurate simulation of
materials on a 3D body. They also demonstrated
the drape simulation of two woven fabrics for 3D
visualisation of garment panels on the 3D body. This
marked a remarkable advancement in 3D CAD for
garment design.
Okabe et al. (1992) gave an outline of a clothing
CAD system comprising both ‘2D to 3D’ and ‘3D to
2D’ approaches. First, they used the programming
language ‘FORTRAN’ together with application
programming interfaces in ‘CORE’ for 3D viewing
and ‘PLOT10’ for 2D presentation, as part of their
CAD system. Later, they re-wrote the whole pro-
gramme in ‘Cþþ’ with application programming
interfaces ‘PHIGS’ and ‘IDES’ for both 3D and 2D
screen rendering, to improve the efficiency. They
successfully demonstrated the wrapping of 2D pattern
shapes onto 3D body models and drape simulation
based on the mechanical parameters of fabrics
measured by the Kawabata System.
Other notable early systems targeting the ‘2D to
3D’ clothing design approach were developed and
presented by Ito et al. (1992), Fozzard and Rawling
(1991, 1992), Matsuura (1993) and Rasdomakhin
(1995). The CAD system of Ito et al. (1992) could
simulate virtual garments from differently designed 2D
pattern sets on a 3D body form to visualise the
differential silhouettes, which they envisaged as a
helpful tool for designers to review and modify the
designs. The design system produced by Fozzard and
Rawling (1991, 1992) allowed the inspection of 2D
pattern pieces which could then be simulated as 3D
clothing. Matsuura (1993) and Rasdomakin (1995)
offered 3D CAD systems with pre-developed 3D
blocks allowing the alteration of style-line and other
design parameters by user’s interactions. The CAD
system of Matsuura was commercialised in Japan as
the Asahi 3D system (Hardaker and Fozzard 1998).
Kang and Kim (2000a, 2000b) developed a clothing
CAD system which had a module for drafting flat
patterns, a resizable virtual mannequin and a drape
engine for wrapping 2D patterns onto a 3D body, and
which also facilitated the simulation of textile materi-
als. Kang and Kim (2000c) also demonstrated the
generation of 3D clothing designs on virtual body
models with their software which subsequently allowed
2D pattern flattening. They capitalised on a stereo-
scopic technique using a CCD (charge-coupled device)
camera to input the 3D shape of shirt panels into the
CAD system to generate the 3D garment models.
Later, in 2002, they presented a technique for 3D
virtual garment generation from body scan data and
this supported the extraction of 2D flat pattern pieces
(Kim and Kang 2002).
A sketch-based 3D design procedure using a virtual
human model, which offered the subsequent flattening
of 2D patterns, was presented by Wang et al. in 2002.
Using Visual Cþþ in conjunction with OpenGL
library under the Windows NT/2000 operating system,
they constructed virtual prototype garments with a
triangulated mesh surface, which they termed the
‘garment feature template’, on a virtual human model
built from scanned data. Through ‘feature nodes
encoding’ using mathematical equations and subse-
quent ‘topological graph determination’, they imparted
the original anthropometric features of the input
Table 3. Developments in 3D clothing CAD Systems (2006 onwards).
Developers
Sul and
Kang, 2006
Petrak and
Rogale, 2006,
Petrak et al. 2006
Decaudin
et al. 2006
Turquin
et al. 2007
Kim and
Park, 2007
Fang
et al. 2008
Features
Non-resizable virtual mannequin ÖÖÖ Ö
Resizable virtual mannequin
‘2D to 3D’ design approach ÖÖ
‘3D to 2D’ design approach ÖÖ
Combined-design approach ÖÖ
Realistic cloth simulation ÖÖ
3D blocks allowing modification
3D grading
Sketch-based technique ÖÖ
International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education 47
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human model to their ‘garment feature template’. They
then demonstrated how to specify the 3D profile of
the ‘garment feature template’ using 2D lines and a
regeneration of the mesh surface to represent the
desired 3D design, and they finally unwrapped the 2D
pattern pieces. They also presented a concept of 3D
grading of patterns by constructing the same garment
on differently sized virtual human models. However,
this process did not provide enough flexibility of 2D
drawing on the 3D virtual model, as the 2D lines are
constrained to the vertices of the mesh triangles in a
single plane only. For 3D grading, the same garment
has to be repeatedly constructed on different-sized
virtual models, which is a very time-consuming and
repetitive process.
3D modelling algorithms for CAD systems to
support ‘2D to 3D’ design were presented by Chiricota
(2003) and Fuhrmann et al. (2003). In addition to
the wrapping of 2D garment panels onto 3D body
models using geometric modelling techniques, Chir-
icota showed the automatic modelling of secondary
garment parts such as collars, waist bands and pockets.
The design system of Fuhrman et al. (2003) offered
fully interaction-free dressing of a virtual human in an
automated way. They developed algorithms for geo-
metric pre-positioning of 2D patterns pieces on a
virtual body in order to implement the physically-
based drape modelling in a Java environment using
Java3D.
A cloth and drape simulator developed at MiraLab
in Geneva is an efficient tool for dynamic simulation
and animation of virtual dressed humans which may
be used to produce a virtual fashion show (Thalmann
and Volino 2005; Volino et al. 2005). This modeller is
integrated into their virtual garment design and
prototyping software ‘Fashionizer’ which significantly
advanced the techniques used for virtual fashion shows
(Thalmann and Volino 2005).
Luo and Yuen (2005) presented a CAD system,
based on Visual Cþþ 6.0 and OpenGL library, which
followed the ‘2D to 3D’ design approach but allowed
the designer to modify the 2D pattern interactively.
The most notable feature of their CAD system is that
any interactive change in the 2D pattern pieces could
make an automatic change in the corresponding 3D
design. They described the process as ‘reactive 2D/3D
garment pattern design’.
The CAD system presented by Fontana et al.
(2005) included a 3D modeller, a 2D CAD unit and
a 3D simulator. The 3D modeller could facilitate
the modification of garment design from a range of
available 3D designs. The 2D CAD unit could
generate 2D pattern pieces from 3D designs and
the 3D simulation unit could replicate the fabric
behaviour and drape to allow the designer to
review and evaluate the fit and appearance of the
garments.
Sul and Kang (2006) presented a CAD system
which could mimic the ‘haute couture’ garment-
making system. The system considered fabric as a
virtual rectangular sheet, which a user could drape
onto a virtual mannequin. During the draping process,
it allowed the designer to remove the redundant parts
of the virtual fabric using the scissoring tool. The
system did not have any flattening module but it could
provide 2D flat pattern pieces by copying the virtual
scissoring process simultaneously in 2D.
An interactive CAD system for drawing on a 3D
mannequin and developing 3D designs from the
drawing and subsequent flattening into 2D pattern
pieces was described by Petrak and Rogale (2006) and
Petrak et al. (2006). They used the software Rhino-
ceros 2.0 under the Windows 2000 operating system to
develop the wireframe design of a garment and to
create the fabric surface by cloth modelling techniques.
An interesting 2D sketch-based 3D CAD system
and design technique was presented by Decaudin et al.
(2006) and Turquin et al. (2007). The CAD system of
Decaudin et al. combined both the ‘3D to 2D’ and ‘2D
to 3D’ approaches. Their CAD system allowed the
designer to sketch garment contours onto a 2D view of
a mannequin and could generate 3D virtual garments
from the 2D sketch. They also demonstrated flattening
of the 2D pattern from the finished 3D design. Turquin
et al. focused on the simulation of virtual garments
from 2D sketches in a similar way to Decaudin et al.
Kim and Park (2007) described a technique for
generating 3D designs in space and for developing 2D
flat patterns from the 3D shape. In their CAD system,
they divided a garment into two zones: a fit zone and a
fashion zone. For fit zone modelling, they captured the
surface of a physical mannequin by a multi-joint
coordinate measurement system and reconstructed
the mannequin’s topography in the computer. For
the fashion zone they followed the CAD technique
without considering the body geometry, rather con-
sidering the aesthetic appearance of the garment.
Fang et al. (2008a, 2008b) proposed a clothing
design process which covers both the ‘3D to 2D’ and
‘2D to 3D’ approaches. They demonstrated the
creation of 3D upper body garment designs on a
virtual mannequin made from body scan data. They
developed the mannequin-based 3D garment designing
and restyling tools using Microsoft foundation classes
(MFS) and OpenGL by exploiting the embedded
mathematical formulae (Fang and Liao 2005a,
2005b). They also demonstrated the 2D flattening of
patterns from 3D designs, and the visualisation of
virtual outerwear clothing with different textures, but
without considering the material properties. In an
48 A.S.M. Sayem et al.
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earlier work, they used ‘object-oriented methodology’
and ‘geometric modelling theory’ to develop 3D cloth-
ing design software tools for garment designers and
also demonstrated the design of 3D shirt collars using
their developed software tools (Fang 2003).
3. Available 3D CAD systems for the clothing industry
Commercially available 3D CAD systems for 3D
garment visualisation and virtual try-on software can
be categorised into two groups, based on the under-
lying working procedure, to create 3D designs. One
group, which includes software such as Virtualfa-
shion
1
(Reyes Infografica) and TPC Parametric
Pattern Generator (TPC), allows designers to develop
garment silhouettes and styles in a 3D environment
according to their preference. Other types of 3D CAD
system allow the importation of 2D pattern pieces
from the appropriate 2D CAD software to wrap them
onto a virtual model in order to visualise the virtual
product and also to simulate fabric drape and fit.
This group includes Vstitcher
TM
(Browzwear), Accu-
mark Vstistcher
TM
(Gerber), Haute Couture 3D (PAD
system), Modaris 3D FIT (Lectra), efit Simulator
(Tukatech), 3D Runway (OptiTex), Vidya (Assyst-
Bullmer).
For 3D to 2D pattern unwrapping, there has been
no 3D CAD system readily available until recently,
which could be directly used in the clothing industry.
Among the available software packages, 3D Interactive
software (TPC) and the flattening tool of 3D Runway
(OptiTex) provide the capability to execute pattern
unwrapping in a very limited context. The DesignCon-
cept software (Lectra) is capable of executing 3D to 2D
pattern unwrapping, but is currently being promoted
for use in car seat design and for technical textiles
applications.
Major features of the available CAD systems are
summarised in Table 4.
3.1. Virtualfashion
1
(Reyes Infografica)
Virtualfashion
1
, which is available in two different
versions: VF Professional and VF basic, provides a 3D
workspace for the designer to create 3D designs
interactively on 3D garment moulds linked with virtual
human models. The software contains male and female
virtual models for design purposes and allows the
designer to import models from other software such as
Poser and Daz. It also allows the designer to change
the features of the models such as posture, facial
gesture and skin colour. The designer can select any
garment mould associated with either a male or female
model and can start the garment design by modifying
the mould, and can finally apply fabric to the design
Table 4. Available 3D CAD systems for the clothing industry.
Software
Virtual-fashion
a
Modaris
3D Fit Vstitcher
TM
Haute
Couture 3D
eFit
Simulator
TM
Vidya
3D
Runway
TPC
PPC
TPC 3D
Interactive DesignConcept
Features
Wrapping 2D patterns on 3D body ÖÖ Ö ÖÖÖ
Developing 3D design on 3D body ÖÖÖ Ö
Flattening 2D patterns from 3D
design
ÖÖÖ
Realistic fabric draping ÖÖÖÖÖÖ
Adjustable mannequin ÖÖ ÖÖÖ
Dynamic pose/ virtual fashion show
a
ÖÖÖÖÖ
Online fit session ÖÖÖ
a
when used together with the software ‘VFshow’.
International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education 49
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from a fabric library. The software offers a selection of
fabrics ranging from heavy cotton to silk, wool and
denim but does not allow the designer to create new
fabrics by inputting any mechanical properties, rather
it only allows the changing of colour and texture. The
software has a drape module which can simulate fabric
behaviour through physics-based calculation. The
system offers the opportunity to create a virtual
fashion show in association with the software ‘VF
show’ from the same supplier. The software is useful
for fashion design, product line creation, decision
making and visual communication but it does not have
any link with the pattern creation process (VF
Professional 1.5 User Reference)
3.2. Modaris 3D Fit (Lectra)
Modaris 3D Fit from Lectra is a 3D virtual prototyping
solution, which associates 2D patterns, fabric informa-
tion and 3D virtual models. It enables simulation of
3D design from 2D pattern pieces developed by a wide
range of 2D CAD software and helps the designer to
validate fabrics, motifs and colours. It allows an on-
site or remote review of the virtual prototypes in three
dimensions and provides the opportunity to check
garment fit in various fabrics and sizes. It has a broad
library of over 120 materials together with their
mechanical characteristics. It also allows the designer
to input new fabric properties in order to view
differential drape.
3.3. Vstitcher
TM
(Browzwear) and Accumark
Vstitcher
TM
(Gerber)
VStitcher
TM
from Browzwear is 3D design and
visualisation software capable of turning 2D patterns
into 3D virtual garments on customisable virtual
models. It is interfaced with pattern design, grading
and marker-making software (AccuMark from Gerber)
and is offered to the market as AccuMark VStitcher
TM
by Gerber. The software allows customisation of the
integrated virtual human models by means of a range
of parameters, from age and gender, through body
measurements and posture, to skin tone and hair style,
and even through the stages of pregnancy. It can
convert the 2D pattern pieces into 3D garment designs
which represent the realistic draping behaviour of
fabric, based on physical characteristics. Its drape
simulation is based on mathematical and physical
algorithms. The software allows the designer to
introduce any required changes to the 2D pattern
pieces which reflect into the 3D design automatically.
It also offers texture mapping, which means the adding
of photographically derived representation of fabric,
stitches, prints and any other attachments onto the 3D
design. It helps to evaluate the fit of simulated
garments on accurately-sized virtual models and allows
the virtual design to be communicated with any remote
customer or partner via the Internet platform. Vsti-
cher
TM
also makes available the facility to realise real-
time fit approval sessions online, across the globe when
connected with appropriate hardware and additional
software.
3.4. Haute Couture 3D (PAD system)
Principally similar to VStitcher
TM
,Haute Couture 3D
(HC3D) is visualisation software which can produce
virtual 3D garments from 2D pattern pieces. It
contains a cloth simulation tool named Syflex
TM
.In
addition to cloth simulation, it allows the application
of colour, textures and prints through its texture
mapping tools. Together with the facilities for modify-
ing the 3D design, it also offers customisation of the
fabric properties in order to view the variation in drape
output. This software is compatible with 3D graphic
software Maya
TM
and other 3D animation applica-
tions and can also be used to meet the needs of the
animation and film industries.
3.5. eFit Simulator
TM
(Tukatech)
The eFit Simulator
TM
is a software solution which
produces 3D virtual prototypes of garments from 2D
patterns and fabric properties on the virtual models. It
allows digital prototype samples to be sent around the
world through email and also provides designers with a
‘virtual fit session’ online, in real time. Using this
software, it is possible for users to see a garment from
any angle in a static or dynamic pose and to create
dynamic storyboards for presentation purposes.
3.6. Vidya (Assyst-Bullmer)
Vidya is 3D draping software which has found
applications in the clothing industry for product-
development and in video games, animated films and
Internet shops. It enables the creation of customised
virtual mannequins based on the customer’s market
and specific size tables and body-scanned data. It can
visualise 3D garment design from 2D patterns and
simulate fabric drape on a virtual mannequin which
can be animated to review the fit. It can simulate
seams, buttons, applique
´s, seam lines, linings and folds
on the 3D design. It allows the designer to add colours
and textures as per the preference. It comes with a
range of fabrics in its standard library which can be
expanded by inputting any fabric characteristics taken
from an objective fabric measurement system such as
KES and FAST.
50 A.S.M. Sayem et al.
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3.7. 3D Runway (OptiTex)
3D Runway is cloth simulation software system for
3D garment draping and visualisation and it is based
on 2D CAD patterns and real fabric characteristics.
It offers the user a range of parametric mannequins
featuring 65 adjustable body measurements and several
posture positions. The designer can visualise any
design details on virtual garments using the texture
mapping tools and can check the fit on the virtual fit
model in static or dynamic positions. The software also
contains a flattening tool which can transform the 3D
object’s surface into 2D pattern pieces to a limited
extent.
3.8. TPC parametric pattern generator and 3D
interactive software
Parametric Pattern Generator (PPG) from TPC (HK)
Limited is software which has been developed to
allow the design of garments directly on a virtual
mannequin in a 3D environment. It comes with a set of
virtual mannequins as design platforms and it can also
create a virtual mannequin using body-scanned data. It
can visualise garment design directly on the selected
virtual mannequin. It allows the designer to evaluate
the silhouette and volume of the garment as well as to
adjust and modify the design. Its 2D module can
generate 2D patterns simultaneously, based on the
designer’s adjustment and modifications to the 3D
design. It facilitates automatic pattern grading. 3D
Interactive software from the same supplier is claimed
to be able to convert 3D virtual design into 2D pattern
pieces automatically.
3.9. DesignConcept (Lectra)
DesignConcept from Lectra is a ‘2D and 3D’ software
solution based on TOPSOLID, a software package
from another French company, MISSLER, used for
3D mechanical design. The software is currently being
offered for the automobile and technical textiles
industries with the name Design Concept Auto and
Design Concept TechTex. The distinct feature of this
software is that it is capable of producing 2D templates
from 3D designs using the flattening mechanism. This
offers the opportunity to execute ‘3D to 2D pattern
unwrapping for clothing product-development pur-
poses. It was used experimentally for the development
of parametric virtual models to create 3D designs and
for extraction of 2D pattern pieces (Sayem 2004).
However, this process involved the importing of a
virtual model into the software, and necessitates the
development of size databases which are not available
with the software currently.
4. Applications and advantages
Okabe et al. (1992) proposed to position the 3D CAD
system at the centre of a textile information network
to process textile design and clothing design synchro-
nously and in parallel. Once a designer finalises a
design, all of the relevant information in respect of
material properties and garment properties can be
easily communicated to the material processing units
and stitching units if the 3D clothing CAD system is
linked with the textile supply networks. This provides
not only a time saving solution for communication
throughout the textiles supply chain, but also helps to
meet any communication gap between the designers,
retailers and manufacturers.
In order to take advantage of labour market
differentials, clothing retailers in Europe and America
have adopted offshore sourcing and production strate-
gies (Christerson and Appelbaum 1995; Firoz and
Ammaturo 2002; Gereffi and Memedovic 2003). As a
result, the majority of the world’s clothing production
is concentrated in the lower labour-cost countries,
usually far away from European and American
clothing retailers. The geographical separation between
source and destination means that physical prototyp-
ing, transporting the retailers’ designs that have been
made up in a designated manufacturing plant, absorbs
a proportion of a garment’s development. When this
process needs to be repeated to rectify problems arising
during assembly or fit, the distance involved inevitably
increases the development lead time even further. In
preparation for decision making on product selection
and prior to the commencement of production, usually
between 2 and 10 physical prototypes are required to
be made within the existing product-development
systems followed traditionally (Lectra Bylined Article);
it involves a high cost and is responsible for much of the
lead-time attached to a garment’s development.
To cope with rapid fashion changes and also
to reduce the costs, there is pressure from the retail
sector to shorten product-development as much as
possible and also to minimise the investment in
physical prototyping. Virtual prototyping is offered
as a solution to this problem. Draping the 2D patterns
onto a virtual human model to visualise the 3D
appearance of the clothing, coupled with realistic
simulation of the material behaviour, provides the
opportunity to check fit and pattern flaws so that the
initial 2D pattern pieces might be refined. It is claimed
by the software suppliers that such an approach will
reduce the dependency on physical prototyping,
and will shorten the product-development lead time
and the associated costs when communicated over
the Internet platform (Ernst 2009; Lectra Customer
Success Story; Tukatech).
International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education 51
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5. Conclusion
According to the 3D CAD system suppliers, Lectra,
Gerber, Tukatech and others, virtual prototyping
and virtual try-on processes can drastically reduce
product-development time and cost. Virtual review
and evaluation of fit with realistically simulated fabric
behaviour can enable faster detection of errors and
earlier correction of design elements, material selection
and assembly. At the same time, virtual prototypes
can be used as a marketing aid for online product
presentation and Internet-based retailing.
The use of CAD systems for 3D garment visualisa-
tion from 2D patterns has recently been started in the
clothing industry. No industrial application of any 3D
to 2D pattern unwrapping technique is yet to be made,
due to the non-availability of an appropriate CAD
system on the market. The use of 3D to 2D pattern
unwrapping techniques will usefully abbreviate the
development process in more than one respect. It will
not only combine the fashion design and pattern
drawing into single steps, but it will also cut the
garment development time and manpower involve-
ment significantly in a way that will provide a
significant commercial advantage. Moreover, adopting
such an approach may serve to redefine the concept of
fashion design and pattern creation. To realise this
concept in practice, the CAD system must be able to
flatten the 3D surface of a garment into 2D and should
have a sketch-based interface to accommodate the
requirements of the designers.
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