The Sewing Place

The Emporia => Sewing Professionally => Topic started by: Maryna Laas on July 19, 2019, 12:12:09 PM

Title: Program for creating patterns
Post by: Maryna Laas on July 19, 2019, 12:12:09 PM
Hello, tell me the program for creating patterns on the MacBook
Title: Re: Program for creating patterns
Post by: badgermat on December 08, 2019, 23:56:42 PM
Have you seen or tried Seamly?

Seems (see what I did there??) to be available for Mac, but I have no idea whether it's any good.

bm


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Title: Re: Program for creating patterns
Post by: crfrench on February 26, 2020, 12:25:17 PM
I am personnally a member (and contributor) of the opensource pattern making Valentina project, which I use each day in my professional work.

It is free and available for Mac OS (10.7 and later), Win (7 and later), and Linux distributions (.deb and .rpm packages).

The project gathers in mainly Russian/English speaking members.

So I have created a Facebook group for French users, and very recently, another FB group for English speaking users (so they don't feel frustrated  :D).

This project exists since 2013, it has forked in 2017. The original project has been renamed Seamly 2D, the forked branch has gone on with the Valentina name (since it is the mother's first name of the developper).

Valentina project evolves and improves constantly, I definitely love it (but I am not objective at all  <3), its huggest strength is that patterns are parametric according to the use of formulas, so you draft your pattern once and it is usable for all sizes you want.

Link removed in accordance with the TSP Membership Agreement (https://thesewingplace.org.uk/index.php/topic,4.msg4.html#msg4).
 
Title: Re: Program for creating patterns
Post by: crfrench on February 26, 2020, 13:21:31 PM
@Iminei ,sorry for the link I had posted. I had not realised (as Valentina is not a commercial project), I will care now.
Title: Re: Program for creating patterns
Post by: Sewingforfun on April 03, 2020, 08:58:59 AM
@crfrench I had a little look at Valentina, and while it certainly opened on my Mac, there doesn't seem to be much help in English. I haven't done much/any computer drafting, CAD, etc, so I need my hand held to transfer from pencil to computer. The Valentina forum, at least in English and/or from the UK, doesn't exist, you just get an error message. I think if you already do CAD you could dive right in, but it's not very beginner friendly (sorry).

I also opened Seamly2D and that seems more user friendly - same basic programme, and also free, but there is a Wiki in English with a "how to get started" page and tutorials on how to do things like make a bodice block or a shirt pattern. Presumably one could use that Wiki to do things in Valentina, too. I think I might have a go with that one as I have been wanting to try computer drafting for ages. 
Title: Re: Program for creating patterns
Post by: BrendaP on April 03, 2020, 09:18:31 AM
Inkscape (https://inkscape.org/) is a free, open source drawing program for Mac, Windows and Linux. 

If you are not used to using a CAD program there will be a steep learning curve, as there would be with any program, and of course you still need to understand how to draft a pattern manally in order to get the drawings accurate.
Title: Re: Program for creating patterns
Post by: crfrench on April 08, 2020, 16:14:34 PM
@Sewingforfun,

You find Valentina is not user friendly because you don't know where to find the numerous sources which are provided to learn it.

We have an English speaking Facebook group. I cannot post links here, but you will find the group by entering 'Valentina en pattern open source pattern making software' in the FB searchbar. We are not very numerous for the moment since I created the group some weeks ago, but it grows. In this group we have provided short tutorials and we answer to questions.

We provide a manual too at the price of 20 € as a contribution to the project. It is complete for beginners and advanced users. I have translated it myself from Russian, we have a French manual too, and we plan to have a Spanish manual someday.

The forum has been closed recently since nobody used it. But nobody used it because we have a chat channel in Telegram, where everybody can ask for help and assistance (bilingual Russian/English, with an automatic translator). Roman and other members answers each day to questions, so it is far more efficient than a forum to get help for Valentina.

We also have a wiki in Miraheze (google 'Valentina pattern making miraheze' to access to the wiki page), it is not complete since I lack of time, but you can begin to work with this.

So we provide many user friendly sources.

Seamly 2D and Valentina were the same software until 2018 but have split. Seamly 2D has no contributing developers, so Valentina has far more improved since 2 years, the 0.7 test version is quite stable and offers a lot of new features.