The idea
The pattern
never becomes paper
Every other way of getting a pattern onto cloth goes through paper first. It is
printed or plotted, carried to the table, weighted down, drawn around, and then stored
somewhere for next time. A projector takes that whole stage out: the pattern is thrown onto the
fabric at 100% scale and the cutter cuts to the light.
Alterations stop costing a reprint. Scale, proportions and
measurements can be adjusted live while the pattern is being projected. A customer who is half
an inch wider across the back does not mean printing the pattern again - the change happens on
screen and the light on the cloth changes with it.
There is nothing to store. A thousand patterns live in the
software rather than in a cupboard, so nothing yellows, tears or goes missing between the first
order and the repeat one. That is also where the running cost goes: no pattern paper, no ink,
no plotter consumables.
The library is the same one. The 1000+ garment patterns are the
same library the CAD software uses, and the CAD licence is included with the system - pattern
making, grading and projector output are one licence, not three.
Setting up
What a shop needs
to run one
Less than most people expect, and none of it is specialised.
A projector of 3000 lumens or more, with a standard HDMI input.
It does not have to be ours - the software works with standard projectors, so a shop that
already has one may only need the software. Brightness is what matters: the projected line has
to stay readable against the cloth under the light you actually work in.
A flat surface. Any flat cutting table works. The projection is
at full 100% scale, so the table needs to take the largest piece you cut, the same as it would
with a paper pattern.
Ten minutes, once. Calibration is a one-time setup of about ten
minutes, after which the scale is correct every time the system is switched on - there is no
measuring or adjusting before each job. Accuracy after calibration is within 2mm.
The software carries a year of support, and because the same licence covers
pattern making and grading, a shop that later adds a printer, a plotter or a laser cutter
projects and prints from the same patterns rather than redrawing them.