3D printing and the fashion industry have had many intersections over the past few years. We’ve previously covered emerging technologies like Kniterate and various materials for clothing. However, the design and model creation side of the equation has had significantly less development. That’s where ShareCloth comes in.
ShareCloth is a software solution for apparel 3D printing. The company hopes to help designers bring their ideas to life using their software. Previously, creating a dress meant have to input designs into complicated 3D editors. These software are not geared towards clothing or fashion which made them less user friendly for those applications. The company saw ShareCloth as a solution to these issues. This makes ShareCloth the only software of its kind.
As part of the Moscow Design Biennale, and working in collaboration with young designers, ShareCloth has presented a capsule collection of basic clothing items that were 3D printed using traditional patterns familiar to the garment industry.
Aside from enabling printable models and g-code, it also gives users a wide range of design options within the software. This makes it an almost complete design hub for those looking to draw up and manufacture clothing themselves.
ShareCloth Features
The software uses formats like DXF files, which contain a flat dress pattern, which is converted to a 3D model. This allows the software to accept CAD or Auto-CAD designs sketched out by users. The user can then customise the model on ShareCloth to fit their requirements.
ShareCloth has embedded tools that help create patterns to further improve the design. The software displays the dress on virtual mannequins to help designers better realise their vision. Users can customise not just the look but also the properties and behaviour of the fabric. ShareCloth insist that this is applicable no matter which filament is used.
ShareCloth allows users to save their designs on the cloud, enabling them to share it with clients or 3rd parties that may have opinions on the final product. After the dress is complete, the software generates a g-code and is ready to be printed. The software is on Mac and Windows and the company has optimised it for tablet and smartphone as well.
As a software solution, ShareCloth is very promising. It looks to be a milestone in the development of 3D printed fashion. We have yet to know if it can incorporate prints designed for 3D knitting devices. This would give it even more versatility in design. However, ShareCloth is an interesting addition to a growing range of printing solution systems. None of the others have so far positioned themselves in the fashion market.
The application’s release is scheduled for September 2017.
A special thanks to Sergey Moliavko, co-founder of ShareCloth, for providing us with the necessary info.
