CUSTOM PATTERN MAKER

		Now available as an AutoCAD® compatible stand-alone or as an AutoCAD® add-on. Not only is this a great time saving tool for custom sized pattern making, it is a great tool for making costumes for 3D animated characters.
	New Stand-alone is completely compatible with AutoCAD®
Cut patterning and fitting time by 2/3 Eliminate the need for muslin pre fittings. Make technical precision a snap. Save time and ensure accurate grain placement by doing layouts on the computer first AND Get off your feet!!! Create custom size "french fitting/draping forms" quickly. Eliminate all those paper patterns you are storing. Turn flat pattern making into a computer game. Select the automatic draft pattern command for the basic block Type in the measurements when the computer asks for them Point to where you want the pattern drawn on the screen Add text labels, matching/marking symbols and seam allowance Plot it out! Digitize into the program from historical pattern books, commercial patterns, or actual garments and use CPM resize & editing commands to easily custom resize. What is C.P.M.? \| Why AutoCAD®? \| How Does it Work?

If you make custom sized patterns for a living and all this sounds good to you, read on...

Custom Pattern Maker is a computer tool for the knowledgeable pattern maker. It was created by a professional Costume/Garment Industry Pattern Maker who is also a university professor. It was designed specifically to do what the garment industry computerized programs do not = make it faster and easier to make custom-fit unique patterns with extremely accurate fit for every sort of odd proportioned and/or crooked body. (Every age and sex.)

The costume industry has changed its pattern making methodology very little over the centuries, while the demands of personnel cost, overhead, and shortened production periods have created an urgent need for time saving methods. C.P.M. is one step toward meeting that need.

C.P.M. also functions very well as a tool for making the designer's first pattern for the garment industry.

C.P.M. is available in 2 different formats:
a stand-alone product that will run in Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP Pro
and
an "add-on" program to the "high-end" computer drafting program AutoCAD® thru version 14. Many theaters use AutoCAD® for doing their set designs and lighting plots. Many colleges have AutoCAD® labs on their campus.

All the pattern drawing files that you make in the stand-alone version are in the same format as ones made in a full version of AutoCAD®.

An advantage of C.P.M. running on the AutoCAD® "engine" is that all major plotters, printers and cutting machines have drivers for AutoCAD®, so C.P.M. can used with any of them.

The AutoCAD® export file format, DFX, is standard to any industrial vertex-based computer drafting programs. This allows for a great deal of flexible use of patterns created in C.P.M., including integrating patterns into garment industry mass-manufacturing computerized systems for grading and marker layout.

This also makes it possible to take the patterns into a 3D modeling program and "build" the costumes on 3D animation figures.

HOW IT WORKS

A custom fit basic block is created by simply selecting the block (bodice, sleeve, skirt, pant) that you want to make from the PATTERNS sub-menu on the C.P.M. SEW MENU.

C.P.M. will ask you to fill in the needed measurements. Once the last measurement is filled in, C.P.M. will ask you to point to the place on the computer screen where you want the pattern to be drawn by the computer.

Using the C.P.M. custom programming the computer then draws the pattern on the screen.

Next you can easily add seam allowences, marking symbols, identification text or intructions or go on to do flat pattern slash-spread-and-rotate to design a pattern.

Ultimately, you can make the cutting layout on the computer (you can be sure the grain is accurately placed) and plot it out full scale. If your fabric is laid out squarely, all you need to do is line the edges up, anchor the pattern paper and cut!

Commands are included that allow you to custom resize individual pattern pieces. This is not an automatic process, but it is faster than manually resizing a pattern in real time and space. The process does require knowledge of where and how to make appropriate adjustments.

Click these links for more detailed outlines of:

Block Drafting

Slash and Spread

Cost and System Requirements