Service · under NDA on every project
CAD pattern making for high-end fashion
Digital precision from construction to marker making. Output compatible with every automatic cutting system.
Service · under NDA on every project
Digital precision from construction to marker making. Output compatible with every automatic cutting system.
The digital pattern is the tool that turns an idea into a file ready for production. CAD pattern making removes transcription errors from the physical pattern, accelerates grading and produces output that is directly compatible with automatic cutting. But technology is only the medium: behind the software there is always the hand of the pattern maker.
At Atelier ModArch we work in CAD from the construction of the first base model, without going through the traditional physical pattern when the garment typology allows it. The result is millimetric precision and full traceability of every change over time.
A digital pattern can be modified in real time: shifting a seam, widening a waistline, rebalancing a sleeve. The same operations on a physical pattern require hours of redrawing. In digital, every variant is saved, comparable, restorable. This reduces production errors and allows us to revisit previous decisions without losing the work done.
For brands that need to deliver CAD files to their own workshop or to automatic cutting. For maisons that want an orderly and searchable digital archive. For companies that have historical physical patterns to digitise. For every context in which file precision is as critical as model quality.
Digital has won outright on two fronts: grading, where a 7-size development that used to take days on paper now runs in hours, with repeatable results verifiable on screen, and marker making, where algorithmic optimisation reduces fabric waste in ways unreachable by hand. To these, add the logistical value: a file travels by email to a manufacturer in any country, without the risk of deterioration or loss of the physical pattern.
What CAD does not replace is the validation of fit on technical garments: the real volume of a padded garment, the behaviour of fabrics along the grain, the compression at the points of contact with the body are variables that simulation approximates but does not replicate. This is why the correct workflow is hybrid — construction and corrections in CAD, physical validation in fitting, corrections carried back into the file. The subject is explored in depth in the guide physical and digital patterns in luxury.
An often underestimated aspect: a well-kept CAD file is the garment's technical memory. Every tracked revision documents why a seam moved or an armhole changed — information that is lost when the pattern lives only on paper, or in the head of the person who built it. For brands with physical historic archives, digitisation is the first step towards making that heritage usable again: the dedicated heritage archives service covers inventory, digitisation and adaptation of historic patterns to current standards. CAD work fits into the studio's four-phase method, from construction to delivery of the production package.
Yes. We receive physical patterns, digitise them with millimetric precision and deliver them in DXF or native format. The process includes geometric verification of every component and validation of the measurements against the declared sizes.
The DXF AAMA/ASTM format is accepted by all the main fashion CAD systems (Lectra, Optitex, Gerber, Audaces). Before delivering the files, we always verify compatibility with your workshop's system.
Yes. If you already have the CAD files of the model, we can handle exclusively the marker making optimised for automatic cutting, with management of grain direction, pile direction and print matching.