KnitScape | Hacker News Reader

KnitScape

depts.washington.edu

73 pointssurprisetalk11 comments

Love this. Nit pick (sorry, sorry), this doesn’t seem to render forces in three dimensions as far as I can tell from the video - no curling of fabrics, no purl bumps for starters, not to mention cabling. That said, it seems to do some things unusually well, like the relaxing into final design simulations are impressive, and that they can do this with slips and row skips and render the back are all super cool.

The holy grail to me would be seeing how these fabrics fit / flow on a model as well; there are plenty of cloth simulators, and I would guess there are reasonably good knit flow simulators, but a design tool that did this and the knit flow / rendering taking into account yarn, would be rad.

The link was not emphasized much, but there's a live site where you can try KnitScape.

https://knitscape.net/

makes me wonder if there is some sort of generic CAD for processes that involve bending and folding. For example, knitting fabric, bending wire, bending sheet metal, tying knots.

For example, you could have a parametric design for a custom/designer piece of clothing and adjust parameters to tailor to individual wearers while having some automated manufacturing

Industrial knitting machines seem to have their own proprietary design systems, for instance Shima Seiki sends people to Japan to learn the system. I would bet many compete on their software offerings — essentially these are industrial manufacture control systems, but they include design features, too. Super interesting space, but software seems to move very very slowly in the textile space as far as I can tell.

https://www.unspun.io/ seems to be trying this

Unspun is cool! I hadn’t heard of it before. They provide 3D weaving on demand, according to the site, which is the “other” clothes manufacturing technique — knitting is how, e.g. a sweater or more finely made t-shirts would be made, and the structure of the ties and loops in knitting provides that ‘stretch’. Weaving on the other hand shouldn’t stretch much, and would be used for, say, your curtains, jeans, or a dress that needs to fit exact sizes.

There are Japanese (and probably other) 3D in the round knitting providers, but I hadn’t heard of weaving done on demand and to spec — that’s pretty amazing.

For amny years I have wanted a Sock Knitting Machine (A Sock Printer) so I could print (knit-print, not graphics) out a fresh pair of socks at will - and a heat lamp attachement - so it spits out a fresh, Warm pair of socks.

Anyway -- there is an amazing piece of software (not free) called "Marvelous Designer" which is like Sketchup For Garments.

Its pretty darn amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/@Marvelousdesigner/videos

It is used for real garment design - but it also can be used for Game Avatars, or CosPlay quite well.

The creator of this tool also recently collaborated on making an experimental weaving version: https://weavescape.net/

Both are so awesome!

Looking at the weavescape patterns for whatever reason, I had a glimpse of an opportunity - A script to convert QR codes to Weave Patterns to load as presets in the preset menu. Make them in sectional swatches then Quilt together as a QuiltR Code.

Now do cabling.

No, not the server cabinet kind, the kind where you cross groups of knit stitches over each other to make 3-D columns from flat rows.

Peak 1980s sweater design! (I recall one xmas very clearly, it was 1987)

We I was 12, brothers 3 and 16.

We lived in Tahoe - so to the Reno Mall for xmas shopping with dad... Dad give me and older brother $100 each to go buy gifts and take youngling along with him and me and brother split up.

Mall's in Reno Nevada in the 1980s are a pretty soul crushing dystopian feel (Thus my love of the Fallout Games as I could relate to the squalor of Nevada/Reno/Vegas Casino Culture in the 1980s (YUCK)

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So Xmas Day Mom gets to open her gifts.

3 very similar boxes, all from Macy's.

All three of us had bought Mom Sweaters. the knit sweaters with the braided 3D cabling and shoulder pads. (Think this vibe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aVxNH6iN9I)

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ANYWAY...

Thank you for introducing me to UnSpun! (I have an immediate product need that I have been looking for a manufacturer for for custom thing - and all my googling and even calling actual Sock Companies (Mr. Sock from LA) I couldnt find what I needed and basically my project went dormant - but I think I found what I need in UnSpun!

F-YES. Pearl Right!

(Every time I try to spin a yarn, knitting together a bunch of seamless pun threads - 'Man, I can!", I posit... "I'm afraid not!" And it all unravels, leaving my stomach in a ball when I wanted my audience in stitches)

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