PatternSmith 11

PatternSmith is pattern-making software that lets you easily prepare your patterns, nest them for best efficiency, and send them to your automated cutter for fast and accurate cutting. It includes pattern drafting, editing, nesting, and machine control capabilities, all in one package.

PatternSmith organizes your patterns into projects. A project includes all of the patterns needed for a product and all the materials, with nested copies that are ready to be cut.

How Is Pattern-Making Software Different From CAD Software?

• CAD software lets you create a drawing that communicates information. Pattern making
  software lets you create patterns that are ready to be cut by machine.

• Pattern-making software understands seam allowances, notches, and anchors.

• Pattern-making software includes nesting capabilities.
  

Design, Edit, and Nest

• Draft patterns in PatternSmith or import them from another CAD program.

• Make smooth curves for efficient cutting.

• Nest patterns, manually or automatically – up to 99 tables of patterns on up to 99 different materials.

• Maintain materials in a Material Library and import them into projects when needed.

• Combine patterns from many files into one project.

• Copy and paste patterns between projects.

Plot and Cut

• Assign plotting or cutting tools to pattern elements

• Send optimized cutting commands to your cutter that allow for the fastest possible cutting

Pattern Basics

Pattern Elements

Patterns are composed of graphic elements: points, lines, polylines, polygons, splines, Bezier curves, arcs, circles, and text. In addition, they use special elements for notches, seam allowances, drill holes, and anchors.

The start point on a selected element is a solid circle; the endpoint and midpoints are hollow circles.

Attributes

Each pattern element has various attributes that can be assigned to it. In addition, you can assign Notches and Anchor Points to elements.

Perimeters

PatternSmith uses each pattern’s perimeter to prevent overlaps during nesting. The perimeter can either be a bounding rectangle (Box Perimeter) or it can be constructed from the pattern’s actual elements (Elements Perimeter).

Some software requires that perimeters be a continuous polyline element. That isn’t necessary in PatternSmith, and would slow down your cutting if you do it that way. PatternSmith can build its own nesting perimeter by tracing the actual elements that make up the pattern. This allows much more flexibility in pattern design.

For new patterns, PatternSmith defaults to a Box Perimeter. As soon as your pattern has a continuous perimeter, change to an Elements Perimeter. If you have any open breaks (where element end points don’t connect), you’ll see a stop sign to warn you.

In nearly all cases, you will use an Elements Perimeter because it allows the tightest possible nesting. Elements Perimeters also give PatternSmith the information it needs to make sure that seam allowances and notches know which direction is “outside” on the pattern. The only time you will use a Box Perimeter is when your pattern doesn’t have a continuous perimeter.

In the Editor Window, Elements Perimeters are displayed with a dashed line.

In the Project Window, patterns with Box Perimeters show a dotted line box around them.

Best Practices

The tools in the Editor are designed to help you make the best patterns possible. Remember, what you draw is what the machine will cut. There are four key components of an excellent pattern.

Accuracy

A pattern must fit together well with its companion patterns. End points should touch neighboring end points. Do not leave gaps. Use snapping for accurate patterns.

Seam Allowances

Good patterns use PatternSmith-style seam allowances rather than just being an “enlarged pattern”. Patterns sew together at the sew line, not the perimeter line, so the sew lines are the lines that must fit well. You may need to change a pattern’s seam allowances. If you’ve started with PatternSmith seam allowances, that change is very easy

Notches

It is best to use PatternSmith-style notches, not “handmade” notches. If you break an element and just insert a line or two to create your own notch, it’s difficult to move in the future. PatternSmith notches are loosely attached to their element. It’s very easy to move them around. If you add a seam allowance or change the seam allowance size, your notches will automatically move to the correct location.

Smooth

The best patterns are designed for cutting efficiently. They are made of the smoothest possible elements for that pattern piece. Smoother patterns translate into smooth cutting motion, resulting in less wear on your cutting machine and faster cutting speeds.

Some elements are inherently smoother and more accurate than others. PatternSmith includes ways to quickly and easily replace an element with a smoother version. In order of decreasing smoothness, they are:

• Lines

• Arcs

• Bezier Curves

• Splines with few points

• Splines with many points

• Polylines

Whenever you can replace an element with one higher up on the smoothness list, you should do so. Splines, Arcs and Lines are easiest to work with.

You will notice that the smoothest elements require the fewest points to define them. Always use the element that has the correct shape with the fewest number of control points. They will cut faster (up to 50% faster) and more accurately, with less wear on your cutter.

A Note About Element Size

Part of making good patterns is having appropriately sized pattern elements. Since we don’t want to try to cut/plot elements that are smaller than the positional tolerance of the cutting machine, we don’t allow the creation of elements smaller than .020″. When elements in that size range are present, either in the pattern editor, while opening a file, or that are present in an imported file, the elements will be removed and the user will be warned that elements were removed.