Methods for fabrication of articles from three-dimensional models

A method, comprising:

• for a three-dimensional (3D) model defined in a 3D space and characterized by a 3D polygonal mesh defining a surface of said 3D model, defining a streamline on said 3D model, said streamline being a line drawn over the surface of the 3D model that loops back on itself;
• using the streamline as an origin, defining a set of isolines over the surface defined by the 3D polygonal mesh;
• for each of the isolines, quantizing the isolines into equidistant quantization points along a length of the isoline;
• defining a cut line on the surface, said cut line representing a seam in a completed knitted article knitted by a computer-controlled flatbed knitting machine and traversing each of the isolines, but only once per respective isoline;
• generating courses by connecting the quantization points of the isolines based on knitting rules to produce a two-dimensional (2D) knitting map containing apexes of quadrangles or triangles of the 3D polygonal mesh, the 2D knitting map specifying locations of stitches for a knitted article;
• for a first portion of the 2D knitting map, decreasing a spatial distance between respective ones of the apexes within the first portion of the 2D knitting map, wherein an amount of the spatial distance decreased between respective ones of the apexes of the first portion of the 2D knitting map is based on a first weight value received from a user;
• converting the 2D knitting map to knitting instructions for the computer-controlled flatbed knitting machine;
• and
• transmitting said knitting instructions to said computer-controlled flatbed knitting machine so as to produce the knitted article in accordance with the knitting instructions.