Looking for ppl to share experiences of *real-world garment production* using CLO as design and patternmaking software.
Hi, I'm really excited about the potential of CLO. In particular the ability to turn virtual designs into real world patterns that can be cut and sewn. This to me seems like the truly revolutionary thing about the software, as it effectively allows you to make design sketches that are automatically outputted as both images for techpacks and actual patterns. This potentially saves an enormous amount of work.
And yet, I can find almost no examples online of anyone actually doing this. YouTube is filled with CLO patternmaking tutorials, but only one that I can find actually ends with the garment being made in the real world (and even then, it's an extremely simple item of clothing). This worries me.
Can any users who are designing garments in CLO and then printing out and cutting patterns (or sending them to manufacturers to work from) share their experiences? How is accuracy and fit? Is it really the seamless (no pun intended) all-in-one design and patternmaking program it appears to be? Or is it less impressive in practice? Why don't many people appear to be using the software in this way?
All info appreciated. Thanks!
-
I too am interested in this. I have asked some peers and they are researching. I will let you know what I find out. I hope someone responds to this post.
1 -
Thanks for your replies, both of you.
@ Plumconsulting - Yes, please let me know what you find out.
@ Ottoline - Good to know that it's accurate. Can I ask what you personally are using CLO for? Tailoring? Industrial garment production? In your original unedited post, you said that the output is 95% accurate. What do you do about the other 5%? Adjust this in the software by going back and forth between virtual and real-world patterns? Simply alter the paper pattern slightly? Ignore it and hope for the best? Can you point me in the direction of any resources that will help with maximizing accuracy (once I get to that stage...I haven't even had time to download the demo yet)?
"everyone is most likely using it this way in production" - Perhaps they are. But for some reason "everyone" doesn't include YouTube users (or indeed users of any other platforms where there are CLO reviews or tutorials). In fact, if you look around online, you might be forgiven for thinking that CLO is merely a 3D rendering program and no more.
I find this bizarre, as the ability to automatically make real world patterns simply by designing 3D illustrations strikes me as game-changing. As far as I'm aware, this is unique to CLO (although perhaps some of the very expensive industry-standard fashion design software can do this too?). And yet nobody really speaks about this side of things online. Instead there are just endless tutorials for making ever more photo-realistic renders. Cool, but as far as I'm concerned that's a lot less exciting than the ability to draft 2D patterns by modeling on a simulated 3D mannequin.
Of course, there could be very good reason for this; most fashion industry professionals will be too busy doing their job to bother making YouTube tutorials for noobs like me. Meanwhile, most amateur noodlers may be more interested in CLO's 3D design capabilities, and may not have any intention of ever making clothes, so they overlook this part.
Perhaps the worlds of amateur 3D design and amateur garment making are just too far apart? Meanwhile, where the two worlds do overlap - in the professional realm - people have better things to do with their time than talk about it on the internet?
Anyway, I'm hoping that some people with practical experience of using CLO to design and make clothes will eventually find this thread and let us know how this is working for them (advantages, disadvantages, annoyances, tips...whatever). However, given that this forum mostly seems to be for Individual users, who lack the support of a Business account, I'm guessing that the people I need to speak to don't venture in here very often.
0 -
"Maybe start by downloading the demo."
- Yep, I will ASAP. But as the demo only last 30 days, I want to be sure I activate it for a 30 day period in which I'll actually have time to use it.
"I personally wouldn't use anything else for the cloth garment assembly and simulation"
- Cool, that's very encouraging to hear. What exactly are you doing with it? I mean, what's your end product and workflow? And on what scale?
0 -
Thanks, but I'm looking for independent opinions rather than marketing material.
0 -
CLO3D is quite accurate, and I have used it at multiple companies in tandem with Gerber AccuMark. One key driver of fit accuracy are the avatar specs. CLO3D provides avatars sized to ASTM standard. At one company, we used Alvanon avatars, which corresponded to the dress forms we used and the rubric used to select fit models for fittings. Alvanon avatars leverage the fit data from Alvanon, but their digital rights management is very strict.
As far as being unique to CLO3D, there are other analogous software applications like Optitex and Browzwear. CLO3D is probably the most accessible. Gerber, in fact, has created a 3D garment modeling software similar to CLO3D, but it hasn't really gained much traction in the industry.
0 -
As ottoline has touched accurately in various posts, for purely "photo-realistic renders" as least in the fashion segment CLO has very little competition, maybe Assyst and Browz arent too far off especially with the recent "integration" of Metail with Browz making it a very viable option for straight to e-commerce and sales, however every software will have strengths and weaknesses.
For "real garment production" it depends on where in the supply chain one is. For a designer it has some very impressive benefits but for a pattern cutter, the grading or markers cant be compared to other software such as Optitex/Gerber/Lectra that many companies would need not to mention PDM/PLM which CLO a few plugins but nothing compared to full blown softwares from Centric.
So to answer your question isn't really straight forward, it definitely has a place but speaking strictly from my own experience as a designer/pattern cutter who has used all kinds of CAD software including investronica, assyst, accumark, modaris, optitex....etc. CLO is leap forward in terms of 3D rendering and every version is an improvement. If you want to create beautiful renderings, garments for flat photography and e-com, its very accessible and easy to use, but if you want to create a design from scratch take it to sampling and full production, you would need more than CLO, maybe it will be different in the future or it might be acquired by Lectra, Gerber or God forbid Adobe (which I would hate, lectra killed off Investronica, just like adobe did with macromedia freehand).
Pattern cutting is a rabbit hole, and when you add sampling or sewing it becomes rather complicated. What I have seen with the software in real world working environment its best used in tandem with a traditional pattern cutting software, so you can work back and forth then plot the pattern to sew a physical sample which 90% of the time is totally accurate and then you can make a few minor stylistic changes to the 3D pattern as would you in normal fittings then make the final sample/production pattern.
ottoline is there anything like metail that could be used with CLO?
0 -
CLO3D have their >> own system for that the link is at the foot of their website.
0 -
Thanks for that, I had a look at it. Is there anything that would work out of the box like Ecoshot? For a quick simple workflow for ecommerce that could be plugged into CLO?
ottoline In addition to this, I must say that your detailed explanations which always include clear instructions are extremely educative, especially for me the ones on avatars, sizing, fabrication and HQ renders. I am not a CLO expert but there always ideas unique to learn/try in your posts, as they relate to the real life working solutions for the fashion sector. A huge THANK YOU!!!
1 -
Came here looking for answers to this same question and was surprised to find nothing because this seems like a game-changing method, especially for home sewists and independent designers.
I decided to try it out for myself so I drafted a pair of cargo pants in CLO with my measurements, exported the patterns as a PDF, then sliced it into A4 sheets in illustrator and printed them at home. So far so good- scaling was accurate and the process was pretty quick and straightforward, definitely way faster than manual drafting.
Gonna sew a test fit soon, I'll post an update here on how it turned out with pictures. I really hope this isn't too good to be true because it certainly feels like it might be
2 -
I am experimenting with using CLO at the company where I work for real parts and I am getting very promising results. I've done several experiments and they all had great results.0
Comments