Reducing subjectivity in apparel CAD simulations

What is it about?

Digital simulations of clothing often look unrealistic because designers must guess settings like stitch tension or fabric stiffness during virtual garment creation. Apparel CAD simulations use two input parameter types, objective parameters measured from source materials, such as patterns and fabrics, and subjective parameters arising from manufacturing processes, such as stitching or steam pressing. The latter rely on designer estimates to a lack of measurement protocols. The resulting subjectivity causes digital twins to deviate from physical garments. This study aims to introduce a metric to quantify this problem and prioritise parameters to improve adequacy of virtual clothing. We discovered which guesses harm accuracy most by testing 20 historical costumes. Fabric drape settings (e.g., stiffness) cause 89% of shape errors, while seam parameters (e.g., tension) drives 82% of structural flaws. Fixing fabric-related guesses first gives three times faster improvements than adjusting other settings. This study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation under Project № 25-11-00022 ‘A technology of testing textile materials in a virtual environment for 3D modeling of clothes’.

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Why is it important?

This helps designers focus efforts where it matters most, saving time and resources in all digital garment domains including virtual prototyping, sustainable design and heritage preservation.

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