JBlockCreator: an Open Source, Pattern Drafting Framework to Facilitate the Automated Manufacture of Made-to-measure Clothing

In clothing production, measurements of an individual are used to drive the geometry of each piece of fabric used to make the garment. Templates called ‘pattern blocks’ define this geometry but the drafting of blocks from measurements by hand is a time-consuming activity. The automation of this process is made possible by JBlockCreator, an application and extensible API for the automatic drafting of custom pattern blocks. The application implements common pattern drafting methods for trousers, skirts, bodices and sleeves. The API facilitates the easy addition of any pattern drafting method, with blocks constructed from a library of geometrical features. JBlockCreator may be coupled to body-scanners and plotters to complete the automation pipeline, writing output to the industry standard ASTM/AAMA-DXF format. The software also features a plotting tool for illustrating the correlation of pairs of measurements. The software meets a critical automation need for the made-to-measure clothing sector addressing common interoperability issues and providing an easy-to-use graphical user interface.