Accelerating Digital Fabric Sourcing | Shima Seiki | PI Apparel

Hi everyone. Welcome to Shimaseki's session today. My name is Hayato Nishi. I currently serve as the PR manager at Shimaseki USA. Alongside me, we have Ms. Minami Hayashi visiting us from Tokyo, Japan today. Yes, thank you everyone for joining, and I'm excited to kind of talk on the topic of accelerating digital fabric sourcing. For 3D product creation. Before we jump into anything specific, I just want to get a general feel of how many people in the audience currently use 3D software to create their digital product samples. Can I just get a show of hands? OK. And do you use scanning to digitize those materials? All right. OK. Thank you. Thank you. So I guess in general, this is how most people would begin to digitize their fabrics. You'll see on screen where you'll have a scanned fabric. And then you go in and you set the repeat pattern from this scanned fabric image. As you can see, if you can use the texture map data from the scanned fabric in 3D, you're able to achieve a realistic simulation of a product sample. All in all, it seems a lot of people work in this flow based off of the question. But can I get an example of what types of equipment you currently use to scan your fabrics? Does anyone want to give us an idea? Vizu? Any scanning? Yes. OK, OK. So even when you're scanning fabrics, there are issues when it comes to kind of digitalization. With this traditional process, one of the biggest issues is that you need readily made fabrics available to really properly digitize your workflow. And with the 3D software, you're able to significantly decrease the lead times by virtually sewing the panels of a product silhouette. But if you have a new fabric under development, you're not really able to check the balance between the fabric pattern and the silhouette until you've received the revised physical fabric sample. And we'll face lead times of gathering these fabric samples. But have any of you had any issues when procuring those physical samples? Have you had to wait for the scanning process when you're waiting for these revised products? Can I get a show of hands of people facing these issues? OK, great. So let's kind of take a look at the process when you're requesting for a new sample. If we— so first, you'll need to request a fabric sample from the supplier. And on the supplier end, they'll need to allocate the yarns to create the specific design. Then each yarns will be set up on the appropriate machinery. Then they'll be able to weave or knit out the fabrics. After that, depending on the fabric, they might have to have some finishing processes. And once the fabric is treated and finished, it is finally ready to be sent to the customer. This process generally takes, you know, 2 to 3 weeks. And yesterday we actually heard a customer that's currently facing 5 to 7 weeks for this turnaround. So that was a surprise to me. And in the case that the yarn mill or the supplier doesn't have the specified yarn color, they need to order those yarns too. And that'll also increase the lead times as well. From there, you're able to scan the fabric and evaluate the design in 3D. But let's say you didn't like that fabric. You're going to have to request for a modification. And you'll just have to wait for another additional 2 to 3 weeks. And this can happen several times depending on how it is. And after COVID, you know, factory closures, delays in shipping, transportation costs are increasing. These are all issues that we all face when we're trying to really go on our digitalization journey. And this is where kind of pre-made digital fabrics might come into play for some of you. But— and in order to simplify the fabric sourcing and scanning process, there's online platforms that allows users to really download the digital swatches to streamline these processes. But with these platforms, the fabrics offered are generally limited. And you're not really able to modify and change colors of these fabrics. Fabrics. So for example, let's say we're on an online digital fabric library. We're looking for a woven fabric. And let's say I like the yellow swatch, second from the left. But if I were to use the fabric as is, I could just go ahead and download the fabric and plug it into my 3D. But if I wanted to input my season's custom colors or just wanted to modify the width of the blue stripe, it's not really possible. And the only realistic option in this case would be to use a kind of graphic software, computer graphics software. However, even if you use a computer graphics software to represent these fabrics, the textures that you create lack the materiality and the dimension. In addition, the fabric data is really only for visual reference. And not really linked with production. So for example, again, let's say we use the graphic software to create fabric data. We then take it into 3D, and we're liking the design. But in order to make this come to life, we need to ask for the physical fabric sample. If we send the factory a product image created on a software, The factory then needs to figure out how to really turn that into a reality. And if the factory misinterprets your design or doesn't replicate exactly what you had, the fabric would differ from what you originally requested. And again, you would have to start from scratch. So now, How can we accelerate digital fabric preparation for 3D product creation? We've covered many of the existing issues that people face with 3D design. So let's take a look at some key points that might be able to solve this issue. Oh, sorry. I skipped over. So 3 key points to solve this issue. First is creating a digital fabric including texture maps without creating a physical fabric. You're not wasting any raw materials. You're really able to go in and modify the design. So that's point number 2, creating an editable digital fabric where colors, patterns can be modified before you even send it to the factory. And then 3, exporting information for production along with the digital fabric, which minimizes the miscommunication and the discrepancies that you have with the suppliers. And this is where Shimaseki's Apex Fizz comes into play as a solution to the 3 key points that I mentioned. Apex Fizz has the ability to create fabric designs based on production data, and simulate digital fabrics using digitized yarns. But in recent years, we've added new functions and capabilities to create even more realistic digital fabrics while being able to export texture map data that can be used in other 3D software. I know some of you in the audience is already familiar with our APEX, but for those seeing this for the first time, I'd like to kind of pass the baton to Ms. Minami to give you a rundown about the APEX.

Thank you, Hayato. So hi, everyone. I'm Manami, a virtual sampling system consultant from Shimaseki Japan. So here I'd like to introduce how you can create virtual fabrics using APEX Vids. So first of all, here is the main menu screen of APEX Vids. And the first step when creating a virtual sampling, virtual fabric for Wivens, the first step is to input the density of the fabric. So as you can see here, I'm now inputting like 10 threads per 1 centimeter for warp and for weft, for example, 9 threads per 1 centimeter. And if you don't have any idea about the density, it's also possible to select from the item that you want to create. So I'm gonna set it to a thick shirt this time. So then once you're done with specifying the density, the next step is to create a plaid pattern. So, as you can see here, you can add stripes for both warp and weft. And then after that, you can, for example, if you want to change the order of the color, you can drag the cursor, and then you can switch the colors. Simply like this. And also you can change the width and the depth of each stripe. So, the operation is pretty simple, so you can create your original design intuitively. Then actually you can check your design in a repeated mode, so you can see how it's going to be designed. And also, if you're not happy with your design, you can modify your plaid pattern again. Yep, and then here you can change the width by specifying the number of threads. And then when you're done with your design, actually, data for production is generated at the same time. So here is the yarn order sheet. So if you send this to your manufacturer, they can produce a fabric as you wish. And then also, it's possible to change the structure patterns. Because we have structure pattern library in here, which includes about 700 structure patterns by default. And it's also possible to customize your library and add new structure into your library. So, here the operation is also very simple. What you have to do is just you select the structure you want to use. And when, if you're happy with your design, the next step is to apply a scanned actual yarn to digitally weave your design. So, for the digital weaving, you can select a yarn from the library. So, by default, there are about 200 yarns in the library. And if you want to add more yarns, What you have to do is just to scan in the yarn. And then after specifying the yarn, it's also possible to add brushing effect or wrinkle effect. So today I'm going to add wrinkle effect. So for example, today I'm going to put seersucker effect. So you can select. The effect you like from here and adjust the strength and also adjust, apply the seersucker to a specific yarn. And then now the digital weaving is started, and here is the result. So, as you can see, the highs and lows of the fabric is represented very well. And in addition to the texture image like this one, the texture maps are also exported, generated and exported. So what you have to do, all you have to do is just click OK in here, and then now the texture maps has been generated and exported. So here in the textures folder, you can see the texture maps generated. So it includes like alpha map, normal map, displacement map, and so on. And if you use a software that supports U3M format, it's also possible to get the U3M format here. So you can input— import it into your software. OK, so here is the result after applying the texture maps generated from APEX. So in addition to the plaid pattern I showed earlier, you can also create a jacquard fabric as well. So here is one example of the jacquard fabric. And here's another example. Plus, it's possible to create circular knit fabric. And here is an example of circular knitting with half cardigan stitch. And rib stitch. And of course, it's possible to create jacquard fabric. Of circular knitting. So this is an image seen from the front, and you can also check the reversed image as well. And since we are a manufacturer of flat knitting, so it's also possible to create a fabric of flat knitting. So I'm going to show you briefly how you can create this type of fabric in APEXfit software. So the first step is kind of the same as that of woven fabric. So what you have to do is to specify the density. And then in the case of flat knitting, it's the gauge. So you can select from 1 gauge to 21 gauge. In this menu. And you can also specify more specific number, like the stitch density in here. And then once the base is generated, you can add structured pattern design. So we have structured patterns in the library. And the variation is about 1,500 structured patterns. And you can also create your patterns by yourself and add into the library. And then once you select one structure pattern, you can lay it out using various tools available in here. And it's also possible to mix different types of structures together. So to do so, select another structure from the library and lay it out in the same way. [SPEAKING CHINESE] So we use the repeat function again, and you can also mirror the structure to the other side as well, simply like this. And once the design is created, Actually, data for production is generated at the same time. So if I zoom in, as you can see, the code for knitting is ready on your screen. So if you pass this to your manufacturer, they can create— knit down the fabric as you wish to. So then after that, you can start the digital knitting. So to do so, first specify the yarn that you want to simulate with. And you can also adjust the yarn thickness as well as the yarn ends. So here is the simulation results. And if I zoom in, you can see how the texture looks realistic. And again, you can export this to, uh, any files, and you can put onto your 3D, uh, item created in other 3D software. And in terms of flat knit design, we have some platform, for example, Yarn Bank, where you can download yarn data for the digital knit down. And also, we have Data Mole, where you can download structure patterns so that you can add into your structure pattern library. And by using APEX to combine these structure and yarn, you can create your original fabric very easily. So that's all about how you can create digital fabric in APEX. So I'm going to hand it back to Hayato for the rest of our presentation.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Manami-san. Without her, I wouldn't be able to showcase that. So yeah. So thank you so much, Minami-san. Now that we've kind of covered the fabric creation flow, I know many of people want to actually see what the quality is like with their own eyes. And for that reason, we have this QR code up on the screen. We'll leave it up there for a while. Feel free to scan it, visit our website, download one of our digital materials, and test it out on your 3D software. Try it out for yourself. See how it looks. If it's interesting, feel free to reach back to us. We have a booth downstairs. And then otherwise, yeah, that concludes our presentation. Thank you so much. Sorry. It just went— Any questions? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] to then provide digital fabric to the customers? I think it goes both ways. There's mills that utilize our Apex to create digital designs for the brands. There's also brands that invested it themselves in order to just streamline their design process and really just send them the production information that they need so then you can minimize the discrepancies. But there's also trading companies that offer kind of those services. Digital services, and yeah, I think it goes both ways. And I think maybe mills might not be willing to go in the digitalization journey just yet, but it's really up to who you work with, and yeah.

Thank you so much for the presentation. It was great. So what I want to ask, so at the end, when we design a fabric this way, do you know the weight, like stretchability, that kind of information for that particular design fabric, and how like, can we customize that also through this designing process?

You refer to weight and stretchability? Stretchability.

And yeah, those two are—

for the weight, we can definitely do. You can even have the yarn consumption rate and the weight. But then for the stretchability, that's still kind of a work in progress for us. Although you can kind of— there is a stretch parameter when you're simulating the fabric. There is a level to adjust the stretch of the fabric to account for the shrinkage. But that's the current only stretch application that we have.

Thank you.

Thank you. I think we're good on questions. So thank you so much.