Garment cad system

Garment cad system Key Point: This chapter introduces the function of this system and relationship with the whole Garment CAD System, for reader to get a fundamental conception. We also sale Sample Development Software and Clothing Designer Apps

This system is an important module on the whole Garment CAD, it mainly use the different tools to get a third dimension effect of apparel.

The main function includes that inputting model or fabric images through input equipment (scanner), then you can select suitable model, manage the apparel by layers management from up to down, inside to outside, you can put on or put off the cloths in hominine logic thinking. Each layer, each style or gridding can be saved separately in the right library for usage in after days. Our system is used to realize the following six functions: (1) style outline design; (2) Create gridding; (3) Fabric filling and combination; (4) Shadow & illumination; (5) Abundant decoration library; (6) Convenient layer management

Key Point:

This chapter mainly introduces the using methods of main interface, system toolbar, design toolbar, lighting control toolbar and control panel switch toolbar, thus customer can understand much more clearly.

I   Main interface introduction

The main interface of 3-D Style Design System is made up of toolbars, customer area and some control panels.

System toolbar, with another name called standard toolbar, is used to realize the basic support function, it is the assistant tools during customer’s design. Detailed functions of buttons in system toolbar are as follows:
New Style (Ctrl+N): used to create a new window for design.
Operations: Click this button or press shortcut keys Ctrl+N directly, the default layers are background layer, model layer and first layer only, user have to create a new layer, and design on this new layer.
Open Style (Ctrl+O): used to open saved design, gridding or apparel outline.
Operations: Click this button or press shortcut keys Ctrl+O directly, it appears dialogue box, you can select file type here: style file (.S3d), gridding file (.GRD) or outline file (*.PAT), then select file name, click OK to confirm. Note: when you pitch on apparel outline, if you open gridding file, the gridding will be act on this outline; if you open outline file, system will add this apparel outline into current layer.
(The dialogue box interface is as image 1-17)
Save as: used to save current file with another name or save as another type of file, like BMP, JPG. You can also save the selected gridding or outline into standard gridding library or outline library, for usage in after days.
Operations: here appears “Save as” dialogue box, you can select file type, type in file name, finally click OK to confirm.
Save (Ctrl+S): used to save whole file. Saved file can disengage fabric library, model library, etc. for a separate usage.
Operations: Click on this button or press shortcut keys Ctrl+S directly, if user haven’t ever saved yet, it will appear a dialogue for save file, it asks user to input file name and then click OK to confirm.
Print / Preview (Ctrl+P)
Operations: Click this button or press shortcut keys Ctrl+P, it will appear printer setting dialogue box (as follows), the default setting is original scale and center print

Undo (Ctrl+Z): user can cancel current operation, back to status of last step.
Operations: Click this button or press shortcut keys Ctrl+Z.
Redo (Ctrl+Y): redo the canceled step.
Operations: Click this button or press shortcut keys Ctrl+Y.
Move object (Ctrl+M): used to move single object (gridding, apparel outline, etc.).
Operations: use select tool to select the object, then click this tool button or press shortcut keys Ctrl+M, left key to select this tool and drag object to the right position, release left key to confirm position. If there’s gridding on the apparel outline, and you select gridding dot, you’ll move gridding only; or else, outline and gridding will be moved together. Note: When you move outline, if there’s other outline have the public line with this outline, they will be moved together.
Lock (Ctrl+J): Auto catch and lock dot.
Operations: Click this tool button or press shortcut keys Ctrl+J, turn into lock status (click again will be unlock status), when drawing outline or visible line, if outline is selected, mouse will auto catch the dots on selected outline. After you open lock function, when you draw outline, if the dot is not on the select outline, system will add dot to that line automatically; when you draw visible line, system will auto catch the dots on selected outline or visible line. What’s more, lock tool can assist select tool: when lock tool is close, you can pitch on or adjust gridding dot but you can’t adjust outline dots, in order to prevent customer move outline dots by mistake. When lock tool is open, you can pitch on and adjust both gridding and outline.
Magnifier: magnify partly and whole magnify
Operations: Click this tool button, then click in the customer painting area, whole image will be magnified, 0.5 time per click; press left key and drag to a different position, there would be a read frame, release left key then the image will be magnified partly. Right key to back to screen status of last click. Pressing Ctrl + Right key to back to original status.
Whole move: Move all the objects in customer painting area except background.
Operations: Select this tool, then click any position on the screen as the start point, drag and here display a red beeline, the end of the beeline will be the new start point of the objects.
Delete Tool (Ctrl+D): used to delete apparel outline, gridding or visible line object.
Operations: use select tool to select the object, then the trash can icon will be active (if there’s no object selected, this tool won’t be active). Then you can click on this tool button or press shortcut keys Ctrl+D, after it appears dialogue box, you can click OK to confirm deletion.

III Design Toolbar
Draw Style Outline (Ctro+H): used to define a close area combined with beeline and curve as style outline.
Operations: Click this button or press shortcut keys Ctrl+H, after you select this tool, you can start to draw, pressing Ctrl key and click, the dot will be curve dot, means it will be a curve segment. Every time you click right key, you’ll cancel one dot, if you’d like to call the drawing, press ESC button or double click right key. If you’d like to draw a public line with existing contour line, you need to open lock tool, details of this tool please check Lock Tool above.
Gridding (Ctrl+W): used to endue apparel outline with solid effect, and create decoration.
Operations: Click on tool button or press shortcut keys Ctrl+W, use this tool to click four dots on the screen in clockwise or counter-clockwise direction to create gridding, or you can keep pressing space bar and drag mouse to draw a rectangle gridding. Every corner dot has two control stick in length and breadth, you can adjust the direction and length, thus you can adjust inside gridding tendency to get different fabric effect.
Pitch on and Adjust (Ctrl+A): used to pitch on all the objects (including dot, line, gridding, outline, etc.), and adjust by mouse operations.
Operations:
A. Operate Gridding Line: if you’d like to select gridding without contour line (like ruching, fastener and belt), just click inside, then you’ll find the trash can icon on the toolbar turn into red, you can press spacebar and decide to display gridding borderline or not (default setting is not display), after you select the object, double click on one of the four borderlines to add section line, you can also double click on the inner gridding line of existing gridding to delete section lines. If the outline is using gridding, you need to select outline, then the gridding will be selected as well.
B. Operate Gridding Dot: when the selected gridding displays borderline and corner dots, double click on this corner dot it will display control stick, adjust its length and direction to control gridding tendency and fabric effect. Keep pressing SHIFT or CTRL button and click dot, gridding will be set into section adjustment status. Gridding concavo-convex adjustment principle: on horizontal section line, except start dot and end dot, more down the dots are, more protruding them display (according to planform principle), on vertical section line, except start dot and end dot, more right side the dots are, more protruding them display (according to Left View).
C. Operate Contour Line: (only when lock tool is open, you can adjust contour dots) move the mouse to contour line (cursor will become pen), click left key to select this contour line, the contour line and dots will turn into red, if there’s gridding, it will display too. You can drag the dots to adjust or double click on the dots to change it’s dot type (curve dot or folding dot). Double click on the contour line to add curve dots.
D. Operate Visible Line: after you select visible line, it will turn into red, you can drag the dots and adjust, double click on the dots, it will appear visible line attribute dialogue box for your modification. When you double click on the line, you’ll add dots to the line. (Note: visible line is a curve made up of a series of dots)
E. Operate Adjoining Side: same as the operation on gridding without contour line.
Reduce tension of gridding node
Operations: after you select the gridding, every time you click this tool button, it will reduce the tension of gridding for one time, means the length of all the control sticks is reduced to half.
Rotate Gridding
Operations: after you select gridding, move your mouse to the gridding dot, the cursor will turn into , keep pressing left key and rotate gridding to a satisfied angle then release. Note: the structure of gridding has sequence, so if the angle is too big will affect gridding effect, here we suggest you use adjust tool to drag gridding dot instead of rotation. You can also rotate according to the gridding center.
Adjoining side (facing) tool: adjoining side means a special gridding which has a public line with visible line or outline (the dots on the public line are same). You can use it to create necklace, lace, shadow, turned-up sleeve, etc.
Operations: if there’s no contour line or visible line selected, you can select this tool and click one side of the visible line or contour line, drag the adjoining side, click to confirm. If there’s contour line or visible line selected, you can just click and drag the adjoining side directly. Here requests the piece together method of fabric should be one of vertical or horizontal piece together.
Community Gridding: community gridding function can make different parts have same shadow and veins tendency, but the fabrics are different.
Operations: click on this tool button and select one outline and one gridding, you can tie these two up. If the outline had a gridding before, now it will be replaced by current one. Note: one gridding can have different outline to share, but one outline only has one gridding.
Fabric Copy: you can use the fabric which you select from apparel or gridding previously to fill in current outline or gridding.
Operations: firstly use select a kind of fabric of apparel or gridding to copy, then use this tool and click on the outline or gridding to fill in.
Imbibe color: mainly used to imbibe the grounding color of bitmap veins, in order to filtrate grounding color, and make the fabric or decoration have a hollowed-out effect.
Operations: after you select apparel outline or decoration gridding, find the right fabric in fabric library or decoration library, use the sucker and imbibe the basic color of the fabric or decoration, in order to throw off the color from the fabric.
Visible line tool: create visible line
Operations: select visible line attribute option in the “Setting” on parameter panel, it appears visible line setting dialogue, you can change the line types through 16 buttons, you can check the line shape in the preview window. If you’ve selected the visible line but close lock tool, you can draw parallel lines. When the lock tool is open, system will catch the dot on visible line automatically.

you’ll set the environment light color when directional lights (left up, right up, left down or right down light) open.
Diffuse reflection light color: click this tool button you’ll see the color selection dialogue box, after you confirm, you can set the diffuse reflection light color when directional lights (left up, right up, left down or right down light) open.
Reflex light color: click this tool button you’ll see the color selection dialogue box, after you confirm, you can set the reflex light color when directional lights (left up, right up, left down or right down light) open.
Left up light: Click this button to turn on a light which shines in 45 degrees direction from left up. Click again to turn off the light.
Right up light: Click this button to turn on a light which shines in 45 degrees direction from right up. Click again to turn off the light.
　Left down light: Click this button to turn on a light which shines in 45 degrees direction from left down. Click again to turn off the light.
Right down light: Click the button to turn on a light which shines in 45 degrees direction from right down. Click again to turn off the light.

V Control Panel Switch Toolbar
The icons list includes: layer, fabric library, decorations library, model library, parameters, and background library. This toolbar is single option choice, you can only select and press one of the tools to display its control panel.

  1. Layer:
    (1) Primary default layers: Background Layer, Model Layer and First Layer. Background layer means the background pic, system default setting is color background, so the background layer is locked. If you’d like to use pic background, you need to select “BACK” in the setting option under Parameters menu, and then pitch on “IMAGE” option in the dialogue box. After this, you can open “Background” control panel to select a suitable pic. First layer means the top layer, this layer is not operable.
    Image 8-1 Layer Control Panel
    (2) Tools Instruction:
    Icons in order: New Layer, Open Layer, Save Layer and Delete Layer. Operation of first two tools is just click on the icon; operation of the left two icons is that you need to select the layer first, then click on the icon.
    A. When system creates a new file, it will create a layer automatically, if user need to add layers, just click on the icon named “New Layer”.
    B. If user want to add an existing layer to current style, you need to click “Open Layer” icon, select the right catalog to open the layer.
    C. If user would like to save the selected layer for usage in later days, you need to save this layer as a separate file, then when you need to use this layer, you just need to open it. Note: if you’d like to have a right preview before you open the layer, you need to hide other layers, zoom out this layer and press “Enter” to save this layer.
    D. If you want to delete a layer, just select it and click on the “Delete Layer” icon.
    (3) Exchange Layers: Sequence of the layers arrays from the bottom up, opacity area of the top layer will cover underlayer. If you’d like to exchange two layers, just click on this layer’s icon and drag to the position above the other layer, then release left key.
    (4) Display or hide layer: We can find the eye icon, if it’s colorized, means this layer is displayed; if it’s gray, means this layer is hided. Click on the eye icon to switch the status between display and hide.
    (5) Preview Layer: if there’re too many layer, and hard to distinguish according to the layer names and find out the layer you need, then you need to get a preview window to check what the layer looks like, whether it has an apparel outline or not. Select this layer, then left click on the shadow (blue part beside the shadow) on the right side of layer control panel, it appears a small preview window, you can check the outline in the layer you selected. If you’d like to check other layers, just click that layer. Right click on the shadow to close the preview window.
  2. Fabric Library Panel:
    (1) Brief introduction: here fabrics are divided into nine types, they are Silk, Woolen, Cotton, Chemical Fibre, Carton, Knitting, Silks and Satins, Oxford Shirting and Lace. Every time displays ten fabrics.
    (2) Fill with fabric: select outline or gridding; double click on the select tool icon to fill in.
    (3) Add fabric: firstly, find ECHO installation directory, default is D:\Des, then find a file folder named “Patten”, there’re nine catalogs from 0 to 8, corresponding with nine types of fabrics. If you’d like to add fabric into one type, you just need to find the right type in the directory, for example, if you want to add a fabric image into “Woolen”, you need to find the directory “D:\Des\Patten\1”, create a new file folder, type in the file name, then copy the fabric image file (file name must be Style.bmp) into this file folder. If you’ve run the system before you add fabric image, you’ll find the new fabric image after you restart your system.

Image 1-9 Fabric Library Panel

  1. Decorations Library Panel
    (1) Brief instruction: here fabrics are divided into eight types, they are Belt, Ruckle, Button, Zip, Shadow, Waist adornments, Stitch, Graphic. Every time displays ten fabrics.
    (2) Fill with decoration: you can regard decorations as fabric to fill in, operations: select outline or gridding, double click on the decorations.
    (3) Import decorations: When there’s no gridding or outline selected, double click on the decorations.
    (4) Add Decoration: firstly find ECHO installation directory, default is D:\Des, then find a file folder named “adornment”, there’re eight catalogs from 0 to 7, corresponding with eight types of decorations. If you’d like to add decoration into one type, you just need to find the right type in the directory, for example, if you want to add a button image into “button”, you need to find the directory “D:\Des\adorment\2”, create a new file folder, type in the file name, then copy the fabric image file (file name must be Adorn.bmp) into this file folder. If you’ve run the system before you add decoration, you’ll find the new fabric image after you restart your system.

Image 1-10 Decorations Library Panel

  1. Model Panel
    (1) Brief introduction: here models are divided into three types, they are Men’s Model, Ladies’ Model, Children. Every time displays six fabrics.
    (2) Select model: before style design, you need to select a suitable model, and then design apparel according to model’s pose and sculpt, operations: double click on the model, if you don’t satisfy current model, just double click on another model.
    (3) Add model: firstly, find ECHO installation directory, default is D:\Des, then find a file folder named “Model”, there’re three catalogs from 0 to 2, corresponding with three types of models. If you’d like to add model into one type, you just need to find the right type in the directory, for example, if you want to add a model image into “Men’s Model”, you need to find the directory “D:\Des\Model\0”, create a new file folder, type in the file name, then copy the fabric image file (file name must be man.bmp) into this file folder. If you’ve run the system before you add model image, you’ll find the new model image after you restart your system.
  2. Parameters Control Panel
    (1) Light Image 1-11 Model Panel
    A. Lamp-house light: on the right of lamp-house light displays the colors of Full Environment Light, Diffuse Reflection Light and Mirror Reflex in turn
    B. Light brightness control: you can click on light icon to turn on or off the lights, when the light is turned on, you can click on the select tool icon, and drag the arrow to different position to adjust the brightness of each light. If you’d like to adjust another light, you have to turn off other lights, make this light turn on, then you can adjust.
    C. Reset button: used to make the light return original status.
    (2) Fabric: referring to the adjustment of fabric parameter, you have to operate after you select the object to fill in (like gridding or outline), if there’re multilayer fabrics, you have to select suitable fabric from the fabric list firstly, you can check the fabric in the preview window on the right of “Dull color”.
    A. Dull Color or Change color: Dull color is used to take out the colorized info, the fabric will be a gray fabric with only black and white. Change color is used to replace one color of the fabric.
    B. Diaphaneity: used to adjust diaphaneity of objects as apparel, decorations (ruckles, belt, button, etc.), visible line and so on. The default diaphaneity is 0 (opacity). The area which this object covered will be displayed by adjusting diaphaneity. For example, by adjusting the coat’s diaphaneity, you can see the underclothes.
    C. Reference Value: used to adjust image’s size. Default is 100 (percent), means original proportion and no magnify. User drags the triangle icon from right to left to shrink fabric image.
    D. Brightness: used to adjust the brightness information of the fabric. Default is 0 (percent), means no increase of fabric’s brightness. User can drags the triangle icon from left to right to increase fabric’s brightness, such as shade of the shadow.
    E. Rotation Angle: used to rotate fabric in a certain angle. Input angle value (0~180), then click on the place out of the input box, you’ll find the fabric is rotated according to this angle.
    F. Offset: when you adjust the fabric or belt, you can adjust the offset on horizontal or vertical direction to adjust the image.