3D Virtual Prototyping Traces New Avenues for Fashion Design And
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Scienc ile e & Papahristou and Bilalis, J Textile Sci Eng 2017, 7:2 xt e E T n : g DOI 10.4172/2165-8064.1000297 f i o n l e a e n r r i n u g o J Journal of Textile Science & Engineering ISSN: 2165-8064 Research Article Article Open Access 3D Virtual Prototyping Traces New Avenues for Fashion Design and Product Development: A Qualitative Study Papahristou E* and Bilalis N Technical University of Crete, School of Production Engineering and Management, Kounoupidiana, 73100, Crete Greece, Greece Abstract Design, Development and Production have largely relied on the same, often manual, methods despite all the technological advances happening in the world outside of fashion and apparel. Ten years ago, academic research (by contrast to the existing 3D virtual software solutions) posited about clothing companies complaints’ on the lack of effective garment-oriented CAD packages to design directly in 3D and provide the model list with tools for shape modelling and cloth behaviour simulation. Although, common place in other sectors, 3D virtual prototyping in the apparel industry has been slow and complex. A qualitative research investigating the level of the technology implementation in the early adopters, the vision of the big corporations, entrepreneurs and professional users for the global clothing and fashion industry as well as the challenges, opportunities and barriers that need to be overcome in order for digital prototype to accelerate business processes on an integrated basis. Keywords: Virtual simulation; Fashion industry; Prototype; visualization or PLM and according to their roles and relationships Automotive; Visualization with the industry we divided them in 4 groups: Introduction 1. Technology providers-vendors The fashion industry faces the increasing complexity of its activities 2. Managers-executives-professional users such as the globalization of the market, the proliferation of information, 3. Entrepreneurs-independent user the reduced time to market, the increasing distance between industrial partners and pressures related to costs. Digital prototype in the textile 4. Academics and clothing industry enables technologies in the process of product The research has been contacted using a combination of primary development where various operators are involved in the different and secondary sources. First hand interviews with the previously stages, with various skills and competencies, and different necessity mentioned categories were used; interviewees were called to share their of formalizing and defining in a deterministic way the result of their experiences, answer questions, examine and criticize the existing tools activities. Taking into account the recent trends in the industry, the and help the investigation study to dig deeper into the characteristics of product development cycle and the use of new digital technologies cannot be restricted in the “typical cycle” but additional tools and skills these technologies, the way they affect the apparel product development are required to be integrated taking into account these developments [1]. process and see if the hypothesis stated by the vendor side (3D design and visualization features is now an important part of the revolution in Design, Development and Production have largely relied on the digital design and production technology for apparel manufacturers) same, often manual, methods despite all the technological advances is established by the experienced users of 3D, the independent happening in the world outside of fashion and apparel. Ten years ago, consultants of the industry and the academic researchers. The software academic research (by contrast to the existing 3D virtual software NVivo was chosen as a state-of-the-art analysis tool for qualitative and solutions) posited about clothing companies complaints’ on the lack mixed methods research. of effective garment-oriented CAD packages to design directly in 3D and provide the model list with tools for shape modelling and cloth Virtualization as an Integral Part of Fashion Product behaviour simulation [2]. Nowadays, with the growth of demand from Development better educated consumers, mass customization, e-commerce, advances in virtual reality applications, the virtual garment development is The 3D concept is an important development in the design process. strongly desired in order to optimize apparel industry’s design and It allows designers to unleash their creativity in a real-life visualization development processes. Although this is now commonplace in the of designs that could previously only be imagined through 2D sketches. aeronautical, automotive, furniture and shoe sectors, development in It is clearly visible that the world is going digital. 3D virtualization plays the apparel industry has been slow and complex; mainly due to the dropping and stretching properties inherent in fabric, which are not only radically different between different fabric types and constructions, *Corresponding author: Papahristou E, Technical University of Crete, School of but also in the direction off weave or knit within the piece [3]. Production Engineering and Management, Kounoupidiana, 73100, Crete Greece, Greece, Tel: +30 2821 037001; E-mail: [email protected] This research investigated the level of the technology implementation Received April 24, 2017; Accepted April 27, 2017; Published April 30, 2017 in the early adopters, the vision of the big corporations, entrepreneurs and professional users for the global clothing and fashion industry as well Citation: Papahristou E, Bilalis N (2017) 3D Virtual Prototyping Traces New Avenues for Fashion Design and Product Development: A Qualitative Study. J as the challenges, opportunities and barriers that need to be overcome Textile Sci Eng 6: 297. doi: 10.4172/2165-8064.1000297 in order for digital prototype to accelerate business processes on an integrated basis. During the process of identifying everyone affected Copyright: © 2017 Papahristou E. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted by a change initiative, we grouped the areas that will be impacted by use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and the new involved technology implementation like 3D prototyping and source are credited. J Textile Sci Eng, an open access journal Volume 7 • Issue 2 • 1000297 ISSN: 2165-8064 Citation: Papahristou E, Bilalis N (2017) 3D Virtual Prototyping Traces New Avenues for Fashion Design and Product Development: A Qualitative Study. J Textile Sci Eng 6: 297. doi: 10.4172/2165-8064.1000297 Page 2 of 6 a leading part in this. According to Dassault System though, many the traditional apparel design process and the repetitive manual processes still do not live up to their full potential. Creative 3D materials changes. The fact is that 3D visualization is now much more embraced have always been painful whereas vendor software companies claim and embedded in the fashion industry than in the past. Interviewees that with 3D virtualization is a fantastic way of starting the process of were called to share their experiences, answer questions, examine and apparel product development. If it is so, then why is the industry using criticize the existing tools and help the investigation study to dig deeper 2D tools to design products that are fundamentally 3D objects? If 3D into the characteristics of these technologies, the way they affect the virtualization has so many benefits and potential for the business why apparel product development process and see if the hypothesis stated hasn’t it been adopted in a large scale yet? by the vendor side is established by the experienced users of 3D, the independent consultants of the industry and the academic researchers. The clothing industry has been transformed from a traditional labour-intensive industry into a highly automated and computer- Materials and Methods aided one. However, the primary drawback for the most of the existing commercial CAD systems in the last decade, was, that they relied on The research project gathered the opinions and experiences mere geometrical modelling and did not provide virtual simulation of experts with direct contact and use of technology solutions for tools (with few exceptions) [2]. 3D technology started to get in that the product development process like 3D and virtual prototype or market but needed technology advancements to get there [4]. The PLM (Product Lifecycle Management); the selection of the sample first developed sewing and draping tools gave the designers the ability was purposive rather than random. 100 Experts from four different to evaluate their design on the screen but the proposed approaches backgrounds of the fashion industry were selected to participate in [5], were generally computationally intensive. Later, Wang et al. [6], this survey contacting personal interviews. As Figure 1a shows, 43 developed a 3D sketch input method for the design of the garment “relatively unstructured” personal interviews were carried out; some of pattern to fit the 3D human model but still, they were not effective in them in typing due to lack of time on their behalf or the time difference supporting design modifications. Updated algorithms, Luo et al. [7] between countries 34 didn't respond at all, although they have been provided 3D garment fitting simulation the ability to react to the 2D contacted with a coming-up e-mail twice. In Figures 1b-1e, participants pattern modification efficiently