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Related question: any good recommendations for garment/fabric specific CAD software out there? As purely a passing interest I recall trying to find a platform

Related question: any good recommendations for garment/fabric specific CAD software out there? As purely a passing interest I recall trying to find a platform years ago but being disappointed with what I found. I've always wanted to design the 'perfect' (for me) laptop bag but found the task daunting. This is coming from someone whose worked with Lasers/CNC Mills/CNC Routers/3D Printers/traditional mechanical & electrical CAD enough to be comfortable with the concepts of computer aided design and machine operation.

throwaway9d0291 6y ago
Unfortunately most of the standard stuff (Optitex, Gerber) is industrial software with "contact us" pricing. What I've found works best for me is: - Seamly2D (https://seamly.net/ https://seamly.net/) and Valentina (https://gitlab.com/smart-pattern/valentina https://gitlab.com/smart-pattern/valentina) - these are two forks of an open-source project. They do pretty much everything I want them to do. - Clo3D: https://www.clo3d.com/ https://www.clo3d.com/ - horrendously expensive subscription software ($50/month or $450/yr) but there are.. Uh... Less legal options available online. My favourite aspect of this particular software is that it lets you view the constructed object (usually a garment) in 3D and run physics simulations on it. I've tried Optitex and Gerber as well but despite being the standard in industry, I don't find them to be great pieces of software. Of the two, Optitex is much better than Gerber but both are really hard to use. I think Clo3D is probably the most approachable option but it does cost. Seamly2D/Valentina have a steeper learning curve than Clo3D but they're also much more capable when it comes to design and in particular, parametric design.