Feature requests: Enabling FreeCAD for sewing pattern making

[xorx]

I am a hobbyist sewer (my shirts are legendary :-) and I was looking around for an affordable tool to make sewing patterns for hobbyist, small bussinesses and 3rd world bussinesses. I know FreeCAD for 3D and point cloud applications and I tested a couple of tools specialized for sewing patterns (Valentina/Seamly 2D, python versions like Patro, and more professional and expensive tools like Marvelous Designer). While the free tool Seamly 2D is easy to use and has a good user interface with an excellent measurements integration, its CAD core is extremly simplistic and is missing essential method. I finally rememberd using FreeCad and made a case study on how to implement a sewing pattern workflow in FreeCad. I found that only a few basic features would be missing for that. But let me first point out what we allready have:

Existing workflow

1. Import/define body measures of the person who is going to wear the clothing: This could be done as properties of a scripted object. Due to technical problems I used a separate sketch for this which is a perfect solution for me.
2. Sketch the outlines of one piece of the pattern in Sketcher
   • Make sketch dependend on external measures
   • Use more or less complex formulas and constraints to adjust the outline of the piece
   • Use symmetry constraints, because many parts are left-right symmetric
3. Create a TechDraw document and add the drawing of the piece to a page
4. Export document as SVG or directly as PDF for large format printing service

This is the whole workflow and it is allready there: FreeCAD is basically ready for pattern making!

Missing features
There are a few essential things missing. As far as I see they could be implemented by scripting or are allready under construction. What is missing?

• Adding seam allowance: For many simple use cases it is sufficient to create a 2D offset around each part we have drawn in sketcher. In more complex cases some curves or lines may or may not need a seam allowance. I could be necessary to select elements that need a seam allowance. Possible ways of realization:
  • 2D Offset tool in sketcher: This is allready in work.
  • A kind of postprocessing feature between Sketcher and TechDraw. This is the way the seam allowance is realized Seamly2D.
• Matching parts: Normal clothes consist of several parts. Typically connecting edges of two parts are restricted to have the same length. There are exceptions like quillings, but the normal case is a clear match. A typical case where three parts have to match a common curve length is a sleeves seam to the two body parts (front and back). While the top end of the sleeve has a gaussian like shape, the cutouts in the front and back part are more or less simple curves. The condition we have to meet for a functions sewing pattern is that the curve length of the sleeve is equal to the total length of the two cut out curves on front and back part. I know that it no point and click automatic to realize this matching without user interaction but we will need a few things to make it possible:
  • Measuring curve length between a start and end point in a sketch or curve length of one geometrical element.
  • Adjusting one or more points in one or more parts along a predefined vector to match the curve length to a mathematically defined condition. Adjusting curvature could also be an option, but adjusting points is more straight forward and more effective.

Your opinion
What is your opinnion, what are your suggestions? I am really interested in discussion this topic with you, because I think this could become a really nice and new application for FreeCAD. I think about extending this idea to a full grown workbench including 3D simulation of clothes as realized in Marvelous Designer and other professional 3D tools. The FEM tools are allready there :-)

[vocx]

I am a hobbyist sewer (my shirts are legendary and I was looking around for an affordable tool to make sewing patterns for hobbyist, small bussinesses and 3rd world bussinesses.

The only recent example of clothing that I can recall is looo's parametric pants.

Beside that, I think there are older examples (several years old) of people designing shoes using parametric curves.

[adrianinsaval]

[*] 2D Offset tool in sketcher: This is allready in work.

Is there a forum topic of this that I missed? this something I really want.

[xorx]

[*] 2D Offset tool in sketcher: This is already in work.

Is there a forum topic of this that I missed? :o this something I really want.

I found a comment on that in this post: Work in progress for version 0.19.

[Kunda1]

Is there a forum topic of this that I missed? this something I really want.

I found a comment on that in this post: Work in progress for version 0.19.

issue #3708 "Add an Offset tool to the Sketcher"
I notated the ticket with other forum threads discussing this issue (including this one).

[vocx]

I found a comment on that in this post: Work in progress for version 0.19.

That proposal was assigned to abdullah, who's the main developer of the sketcher (issue #3708).

However, abdullah was basically absent for the entirety of the 0.19 development cycle. I haven't heard him say anything about this. So, unless he makes some public announcement, I doubt he has even worked on this feature since he posted in the tracker.

ping

Is the Sketcher Offset tool ready for 0.19, oh, grand master of the Sketcher?

[abdullah]

Is the Sketcher Offset tool ready for 0.19, oh, grand master of the Sketcher?

No. Sorry!

The thing is that I do miss that functionality and I would love to implement it.

ATM, I am at about 10% capacity, which I have decided to use for Sketch PR review and helping integrate ConstraintSolver in the Sketcher. This means that major Sketcher development from my side is on-hold.

Hopefully I will be able to recover some capacity for 0.20 development cycle.

[vocx]

No. Sorry!

Okay, that clarifies things for xorx.

[wolits]

Has there been any progress for the offset or anything at all for sewing?

I can't find anything in free or open software that does any of this. Embroidery would be nice, although that is more along the lines of a multi-color "slicer" for 3D printing. Either way, I see nothing for sewing, embroidery, quilting or stitching/sewing of any kind in any non-commercial software.

Side note: While the entire world of "open source" seems non-existent for any of this, this could make an interesting case study for female influence in software engineering. Maybe you could make a study for bias/stereotyping for that last sentence, but probability would still lean a certain way as you can't have 1000:1 (10,000:1 ?) female quilting/sewing Youtube videos and not draw up numbers. To be honest, I never really saw or even thought about this in open source before trying to find software for any of this. You'd think there would be something, anything... but there's nothing.