An Architecture for the Intelligent Support of Knitwear Design
An Architecture for the Intelligent Support of Knitwear Design
Design Discipline, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.
Computing Department, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.
J.E.E. Sharpe (ed.)
AI System Support for Conceptual Design.
Springer-Verlag, London, 1995, pp 71-92.
Open University Computing Department Research Report 95/04
ABSTRACT. Small changes to the appearance of a knitted garment can have dramatic effects on the cost and difficulty of manufacturing it, so knitwear design involves a complex interaction between aesthetic considerations and technical constraints. The conceptual design is done by knitwear designers, who give informal descriptions of designs to knitting machine technicians. The technicians use CAD systems to write programs for manufacturing them, which involves doing a lot of detailed design. The designers' designs are often infeasible, and the technicians sometimes severely distort them.
This paper presents an architecture for an intelligent support system for knitwear designers, intended to enable them to use system-generated technical feedback to create technically correct designs, with clear design descriptions for technicians. It comprises three design environments, for stitch structure design, garment shape design, and pattern placement. The system should make as much use as possible of designers' abilities to do visual thinking and make rapid perceptual evaluations of designs. We propose using automatic design modules to generate candidate completions and modifications of the users' designs, which the users can evaluate and edit, in all three design environments. Automatic design completion would put the process of making technically motivated modifications under the control of the designers, and would fit professional knitwear designers' usual working methods.
Author addresses. | |
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Claudia Eckert
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Martin Stacey
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