Fashion Terms — the Apparel Search fashion terminology directory
Computer-aided design — CAD — is the use of computer technology for the design of objects, real or virtual. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics material quoted on this page, CAD is increasingly used in the fashion design industry: although most designers initially sketch by hand, a growing number translate those sketches to the computer, where designs can be viewed on virtual models in various colors and shapes, saving time by requiring fewer adjustments of prototypes and samples later. This page explains CAD in two and three dimensions and its place in apparel design.
CAD Computer Aided Design Term - Design Terms of Interest to the Fashion Industry
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CAD may be used to design curves and figures in two-dimensional ("2D") space; or curves, surfaces, and solids in three-dimensional ("3D") objects. CAD is an important industrial art extensively used in many other design applications, including automotive, shipbuilding, and aerospace, industrial and architectural design, prosthetics, and more.
CAD has become an especially important technology within the scope of computer-aided technologies, with benefits such as lower product development costs and a greatly shortened design cycle. CAD enables designers to lay out and develop work on screen, print it out and save it for future editing, saving time on their drawings.
CAD is also
widely used to produce computer animation
for special effects in movies, advertising
and technical manuals. The modern ubiquity
and power of computers means that even
perfume bottles and shampoo dispensers
are designed using techniques unheard
of by engineers of the 1960s. Because
of its enormous economic importance,
CAD has been a major driving force for
research in computational geometry,
computer graphics (both hardware and
software), and discrete differential
geometry.
The design of geometric models for object
shapes, in particular, is often called
computer-aided geometric design (CAGD).
CAD is clearly important to members of the fashion industry.
Find CAD software and other Fashion Design Software in our fashion technology section.
By Regina Cooper for Apparel Search
Tools helpful to fashion CAD designers:
◊ CAD Software - Fashion and Textile Industry
◊ PDM Software - Fashion and Textile Industry
Here are some companies or people that may have interest in CAD design.
Are you looking for help with any
of the following services:
AutoCAD Design
AutoCAD Conversion
AutoCAD Drawings
AutoCAD Engineering
2D to 3D conversions
Architectural renderings
Raster to vector conversion
Architectural drawings
GIS conversion
Logo vectorization
Digitizing maps
Legacy drawing conversion
Maybe a CAD designer can assist you...
If you are interested, you may want to read the CAD definition as well.
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If you are a fashion illustrator, please join in the discussions about CAD design at the Fashion Illustrator Group at the Fashion Industry Network.
Computer-aided design: using computer software to develop clothing designs — turning hand sketches into digital designs that can be viewed on virtual models, recolored, reshaped and revised before any fabric is cut.
Because changes on screen are cheap and changes in cloth are not. Viewing a design in many colors and shapes on a virtual model reduces the number of prototype and sample adjustments needed later, as this page explains.
As in technical drawing, CAD output often conveys symbolic information as well — materials, processes, dimensions and tolerances, according to application-specific conventions — the information a factory needs to make the design.