Computer-Implemented Method For Designing A Garment Or Upholstery By Defining Sequences Of Assembly Tasks

A computer program product (EXP), stored on a non-volatile computer-readable data-storage medium (M1-M4), comprising computer-executable instructions to cause a computer system to design a virtual garment or upholstery in a three-dimensional scene by:

• a) providing a three-dimensional manikin (MK) in the three-dimensional scene, a set of pattern parts (P1-P14) of said virtual garment or upholstery and a set of seam specification, a seam (S1-S7) including a set of distance constraints between pairs of points of two pattern part edges to be stitched together;
• b) receiving as inputs from a user a plurality of declarations of assembly tasks (A, B, C, D1, D2, E1, E21, E22, F2) for assembling the garment or upholstery;
• c) receiving as an input from the user at least a declaration of a partial ordering relationship between two or more of said assembly tasks;
• d) executing said tasks according to said partial ordering relationship, each task changing a state (0-3, 41, 42, 51, 521, 522, 621, 622) of the garment or upholstery under assembly;
• and
• e) while executing the tasks, generating and storing in a memory device a tree data structure comprising nodes linked by directed arcs, each node storing information defining a state of the garment or upholstery and each arc being associated to an assembly task, the task of an arc connecting a first node to a second node changing the state associated to the first node to the state associated to the second node.

A non-volatile computer-readable data-storage medium comprising:

• a memory storage area containing (M1-M4) computer-executable instructions (EXP) to cause a computer system to design a virtual garment or upholstery in a three-dimensional scene by:
• f) providing a three-dimensional manikin (MK) in the three-dimensional scene, a set of pattern parts (P1-P14) of said virtual garment or upholstery and a set of seam specification, a seam (S1-S7) including a set of distance constraints between pairs of points of two pattern part edges to be stitched together;
• g) receiving as inputs from a user a plurality of declarations of assembly tasks (A, B, C, D1, D2, E1, E21, E22, F2) for assembling the garment or upholstery;
• h) receiving as an input from the user at least a declaration of a partial ordering relationship between two or more of said assembly tasks;
• i) executing said tasks according to said partial ordering relationship, each task changing a state (0-3, 41, 42, 51, 521, 522, 621, 622) of the garment or upholstery under assembly;
• and
• j) while executing the tasks, generating and storing in a memory device a tree data structure comprising nodes linked by directed arcs, each node storing information defining a state of the garment or upholstery and each arc being associated to an assembly task, the task of an arc connecting a first node to a second node changing the state associated to the first node to the state associated to the second node.

A Computer Aided Design system comprising:

• a processor (PR) coupled to a memory (M1-M4) and a graphical user interface (IF, KB, PD, DC, DY),
• the memory storing computer-executable instructions that cause the Computer Aided Design system to design a virtual garment or upholstery in a three-dimensional scene by:
• a) providing a three-dimensional manikin (MK) in the three-dimensional scene, a set of pattern parts (P1-P14) of said virtual garment or upholstery and a set of seam specification, a seam (S1-S7) including a set of distance constraints between pairs of points of two pattern part edges to be stitched together;
• b) receiving as inputs from a user a plurality of declarations of assembly tasks (A, B, C, D1, D2, E1, E21, E22, F2) for assembling the garment or upholstery;
• c) receiving as an input from the user at least a declaration of a partial ordering relationship between two or more of said assembly tasks;
• d) executing said tasks according to said partial ordering relationship, each task changing a state (0-3, 41, 42, 51, 521, 522, 621, 622) of the garment or upholstery under assembly;
• and
• e) while executing the tasks, generating and storing in a memory device a tree data structure comprising nodes linked by directed arcs, each node storing information defining a state of the garment or upholstery and each arc being associated to an assembly task, the task of an arc connecting a first node to a second node changing the state associated to the first node to the state associated to the second node.

A method of manufacturing a garment or upholstery comprising:

• a step of designing said garment or upholstery by:
• a) providing a three-dimensional manikin (MK) in a three-dimensional scene, a set of pattern parts (P1-P14) of said virtual garment or upholstery and a set of seam specification, a seam (S1-S7) including a set of distance constraints between pairs of points of two pattern part edges to be stitched together;
• b) receiving as inputs from a user a plurality of declarations of assembly tasks (A, B, C, D1, D2, E1, E21, E22, F2) for assembling the garment or upholstery;
• c) receiving as an input from the user at least a declaration of a partial ordering relationship between two or more of said assembly tasks;
• d) executing said tasks according to said partial ordering relationship, each task changing a state (0-3, 41, 42, 51, 521, 522, 621, 622) of the garment or upholstery under assembly;
• and
• e) while executing the tasks, generating and storing in a memory device a tree data structure comprising nodes linked by directed arcs, each node storing information defining a state of the garment or upholstery and each arc being associated to an assembly task, the task of an arc connecting a first node to a second node changing the state associated to the first node to the state associated to the second node;
• and
• a step of physically manufacturing said garment or upholstery by carrying out physical assembly tasks corresponding to tasks associated to a set of nodes of a tree data structure generated during the design step, carried out in an order defined by the arcs of said tree data structure.