This is the transcript of a session recorded at PI Apparel New York 2022. The full recording of this session can be watched here.
Hi, everyone. Welcome to Shima Seiki Session today. My name is Hayato Onishi. I currently serve as the PR manager, at Shima Seiki USA.
Alongside me we have Ms. Manami Hayashi visiting us from Tokyo, Japan today. Yes. Thank you, everyone for joining. And I’m excited to kind of talk on the topic of accelerating digital Fabrique sourcing for 3D product creation. Before we jump into anything specific, I just want to get a general feel of how many people in the audience currently use 3D software to create their digital product samples.
Can I can I just get a show of hands? Okay. And do you use kind of scanning to kind of digitize those materials? All right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So I guess in general, this is how most people would begin to digitize their fabrics. You’ll see on screen where you’ll have a scanned fabric and and then you go in and you set the repeat pattern from this scanned fabric image.
As you can see, if you can use the texture map data from the scan fabric in 3D, you’re able to achieve realistic simulation of a product sample. All in all, it seems a lot of people kind of work in this flow based off of the question. But can I get an example of like what types of equipment you currently use to scan your fabrics?
Does anyone want to give me a give us an idea with you and any any scanning? Yes. Okay. Okay. So even when you’re scanning fabrics, there are issues when it comes to kind of digitalization with this traditional process. One of the biggest issues is that you need readily made fabrics available to really properly digitize your workflow. And with a 3D software, you’re able to significantly decrease the lead times by virtually sewing the panels of a product silhouette.
But if you have new fabric under development, you’re not really able to check the balance between the fabric pattern and the silhouette until you’ve received the revised physical fabric sample and will face lead times and of gathering these fabric samples. And, But have any of you had any issues when procuring those kind of physical samples? Have you had to wait for the scanning process when you’re waiting for these revised products?
Can I get a show of hands of people facing these issues? Okay, great.
So let’s kind of take a look at the process when you’re requesting for a new sample. If we. So first, you’ll need to request a fabric sample from the supplier. And on the supplier, end, they’ll need to allocate the yarns to create the specific design. But then the each yarns will be set up on the appropriate machinery. Then they they’ll be able to weave or knit out the fabrics after that, depending on the fabric.
They might have to have some finishing processes. And once the fabric is treated and finished, it is finally ready to be sent to the customer. This process generally takes, you know, 2 to 3 weeks. And yesterday we actually heard a customer that’s currently facing 5 to 7 weeks for this kind of turnaround. So that was a surprise to me.
And if the in the case that the yarn or the supplier doesn’t have the specified yarn color, they need to order those yarns to and they’ll also increase the lead times as well. From there you’re able to scan the fabric and evaluate the design in 3D. But let’s say you didn’t like that fabric. You’re going to have to request for a modification and you’ll just have to wait for another additional 2 to 3 weeks.
And this can happen several times depending on how it is. And after COVID, you know, factory closures, delays in shipping and transportation costs are increasing. These are all issues that we all face when we’re trying to really go on our digitalization journey. And this is where kind of premade digital fabrics might come into play for some of you.
But and in order to simplify the fabric sourcing and scanning process, there’s online platforms that allows users to really download the digital swatches to streamline these processes. But with these platforms, the fabrics offered are generally limited and you’re not really able to modify and change colors of these fabrics. So, for example, let’s say we’re on an online digital fabric library.
We’re looking for a woven fabric. And let’s say I like the the yellow swatch second from the left. But if I were to use the fabric as is, I can just go ahead and download the fabric and plug it into my 3D. But if I wanted to input my season’s custom colors or just wanted to modify the blue the width of the blue stripe, it’s not really possible.
And the only realistic option in this case would be to use a kind of graphic software computer graphics software. However, even if you use a computer graphics software to represent these fabrics, the textures that you create, let the material clarity and the dimension in addition to the fabric data is really only for visual reference and not really linked with production.
So for example, again, let’s say we use the graphics software to create fabric data. We then take it into 3D and we’re liking the design. But in order to make this come to life, we need to ask for the physical fabric sample. If we send a factory, a product image created on a software, the factory then needs to figure out how to really turn that into a reality.
And if the factory misinterprets your design or it doesn’t replicate exactly what you had, the fabric would differ from what you originally requested. And again, you would have to start from scratch.
So now how can we accelerate digital fabric preparation for 3D product creation? We’ve covered many of the kind of existing issues that people face with 3D design. So let’s take a look at some key points that might be able to solve this issue.
Sorry, I skipped over so three key points to solve this issue. First is creating a digital fabric, including texture maps. Without creating a physical fabric, you’re not wasting any raw materials. You’re really able to go in and modify the design. So that’s point number two, creating a editable digital fabric where colors patterns can be modified before you even send it to the factory.
And then three exporting information for production along with the digital fabric, which minimizes the miscommunication and the discrepancies that you have with the suppliers.
And this is where Shima Seiki’s Apex phase comes into play as a solution to the three key points that I mentioned. Apex Phase has the ability to create fabric designs based on production data and simulate digital fabrics using digitized yarns. But in recent years, we’ve added new functions and capabilities to create even more realistic digital fabrics while being able to export texture map data that can be used in other 3D software.
I know some of you in the audience is already familiar with Apex, but for those seeing us for the first time, I’d like to kind of pass the baton to Ms.. Minami to give you a rundown about the apex. Thank you had though. So, hi, everyone. I’m Minami, virtual sampling system consultant from Masayuki, Japan. So here I’d like to introduce how you can create virtual fabrics using Apex, which.
So first of all, here is the main menu screen of apex fit and the first step when creating a virtual sampling virtual fabric for within the first step is to input the density of the fabric. So as you can see here, I’m now inputting like ten threads per one centimeter for work and for weft, for example, nine threads per one centimeter.
And if you don’t have any idea about the density, it’s also possible to select from the item that you want to create. So I’m going to set it to a thick shirt this time. So then once you’re done with specifying the density, the next step is to create a plot pattern.
So as you can see here, you can add stripes for both work and weft. And then after that you can, for example, if you want to change the order of the color, you can drag the castle and you can switch the colors simply like this. And also you can change the width and the depth of each stripe. So the operation is pretty simple, so you can create your original design.
Intuitively, and then actually you can check your design in a repeated mode so you can see how it’s going to be create the designs. And also, if you’re not happy with your design, you can modify your plot pattern. Again. Yeah. And in here you can change that with by specifying the number of threads. And then when you’re done with your design, actually a data for production is generated at the same time.
So here is the yarn order sheet. So if you send this to your manufacturer, they can produce a fabric as you wish.
And then also it’s possible to change the structure patterns because we have structure pattern library in here, which include about 700 structure patterns by default. And it’s also possible to customize your library and at new structure into your library.
So here the operation is also very simple. What you have to do is just you select the structure you want to use and when if you’re happy with your design, the next step is to apply a scanned actual yarn to digitally weave your design.
So for the digital weaving, you can select a yarn from the library. So by default there are about 200 yarns in the library. And if you want to add more yarn, what you have to do is just to scan in the yarn and then after specifying the yarn, it’s also possible to add brush in effect or wrinkle effect.
So today I’m going to and add wrinkle effect. So for example, today I’m going to put seersucker effect so you can select the effect you like from here and adjust the strand and also adjust apply the seersucker to a specific yarn. And then now that digital weaving is started and here is the result. So you can see the highs and lows of the fabric is represented very well.
And in addition to the texture image like this one, the texture maps are also exported. It generated and exported it. So what you have to do, all you have to do is just click, okay. And here and then now the texture maps has been generated and exported.
So here in the textures folder, you can see the texture maps generated. So it includes like alpha map, normal map, displacement map, and so on. And if you use a software that supports you three M format, it’s also possible to get the used three M format here so you can input, import it into yourself where. Okay, so here is the result.
After applying the texture map generated from Apex. So in addition to the pattern I showed earlier, you can also create a Jacquard fabric as well. So here is one example of the Jacquard fabric. And here’s another example. Plus, it’s possible to create circular knit fabric. And here is an example of circular knitting, which half cardigan stitch and rip stitch.
And of course, it’s possible to create jacquard fabric of circular knitting. So there’s this is an image seen from from the front. And you can also check the reversed image as well.
And since we are manufacture of flat knitting. So it’s also possible to create a fabric of flat knitting. So I’m going to show you briefly how you can create this type of fabric in APEC’s fit software. So the first step is kind of the same as that of within fabric. So what you have to do is to specify the density, and then in the case of flat knitting, it’s the gauge.
So you can select from one gauge to 21 gauge in this menu and you can also specify more specific number. Like that stitch density in here.
And then once the base is generated, you can add structure, pattern design. So we have structure patterns in the library. And the variation is about 1500 structure patterns. And you can also create your patterns by yourself. And add into the library. And then once you select one structure pattern, you can lay out using various tools available in here.
And it’s also possible to mix different types of structures together. So to do so, select another structure from the library and lay it out in the same way.
So we use the repeat function again. And you can also mirror the structure to the others side as well, simply like this. And once the design is created, actually data for production is generated at the same time. So if I come in, as you can see, the code for knitting is ready on your screen. So if you pass this to your manufacturer or they can create a knit down the fabric as you wish, you.
So then after that, you can start the digital knitting. So to do so first, specify the yarn that you want to stimulate with and you can also just the yarn thickness in as well as the yarn ends.
So here is the simulation result. And if I Jim in, you can see how the texture looks realistic. And again, you can export this to any files and you can put onto your 3D item, create any other 3D shelf where and in terms of flat knit design, we have some platform, for example, Yarn Bank, where you can download yarn data for the digital you down.
And also we have data mill where you can download structure patterns so that you can add into your structure pattern library and by using Apex to combine these structure and yarn. You can create your original fabric very easily. So that’s all about how you can create digital fabric in Apex. So I’m going to hand it back to Hayato for the rest of our presentation.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Manami Sun. Without her, I wouldn’t be able to showcase that. So. So, yeah. So thank you so much, Minami san. Now that we’ve kind of covered the fabric creation flow, I know many of people want to actually see what the qualities, like with their own eyes. And for that reason, we had this QR code up on the screen.
We’ll leave it up there for a while. Feel free to scan it. Visit our website, download one of our digital materials and test it out on your 3D software and try it out for yourself. See how it looks. If it’s interesting, feel free to reach back to us. You know, we have a booth downstairs and and then otherwise.
Yeah. That concludes our presentation. Thank you so much. Sorry. Any questions? And the results? Results that you have are pretty impressive as far as, would you say from a design sense. I would expert vendor much better than I. Sorry, we’re going to do this process because I think it’s it goes both ways. There’s mills that utilize our apex to create digital designs for the brands.
There’s also brands that invested it themselves in order to just streamline their design process and really just send them the production information that they need. So then you can minimize the discrepancies. But there’s also trading companies that offer kind of those services, digital services and, yeah, I think it goes both ways and I think maybe Mills might not be willing to go in the digitalization journey just yet, but you know, it’s really up to who you work with.
And yeah, thank you so much for the presentation. It was great. so what I want to ask to it to end this line of fabric this way. Do you know the way I’d like to be able to take that kind of information for that particular design fabric and how, like, can customize that Also, through this designing process, you prefer to wait and stitch and stretch ability and gap does to ah, for, for the wait we can definitely do you can even have the yarn consumption rate and the weight.
But then for the stretch ability, that’s still kind of a works in progress for us, although you can kind of there is a stretch parameter when you’re simulating the fabric, there is the level to kind of adjust the, the stretch of the fabric to kind of account for the shrinkage. But that’s the current only kind of stretch application that we have.
Thank you.
Yeah, I think we’re good on questions, So thank you so much.
