Anthropometric CAD Technique for Reverse Engineering & 3D Grading of Men’s Outerwear

a novel resizable design platform to execute 3D design and grading as well as pattern flattening of men’s outerwear.Design/technology/approach – A set of Point-Cloud data, captured by a modern body-scanner, was used as raw material to generate a virtual human model, which was further sliced at pre-determined horizontal displacements to extract a set of sectional curves for body and arms. The extracted curves were modified, symmetrised as necessary, scaled and programmed to be linked with size databases before using them to generate a new surface, which formed a resizable design platform. Findings – It has been found to be possible to use the resizable design platform as a 3D drawing board for the creation of virtual clothing, and for the execution of 3D grading and automatic pattern flattening within the environment of an available CAD system. Hence, the processes of fashion design and pattern creation may be combined into a single step. Physical prototypes have been assembled from flattened pattern pieces and have been shown to provide an acceptable fit, further attesting to the functionality of the technique. Practical implications – The demonstrated technique can be applied to the development of product-specific 3D design platforms for the benefit of clothing designers. Such a design platform can also be integrated as a ready-made 3D design tool within available 3D CAD systems. Originality/value: As far as is known, such a resizeable design platform for combined virtual design, automatic pattern creation and 3D grading of outerwear clothing has not been previously demonstrated.