How to Make Knit Fabrics for 3D Clothing

Hello Designistas, welcome to Encoder Fashion I'm Rose and today's tip is on how to use APEXFiz Design Jr. to create these perfect seamless repeat knit fabrics for 3D garments. I will share with you some simple steps to create two cable knits and one rip-knit fabric for the hoodie.

Let's do it.

OK, I'm here in APEXFiz Design Jr. Software, and before we begin creating digital fabrics for the hoodie, I want to point out a few things here.

So this top part here is a Menu bar, which contains File, Edit, View, Image, and so on, and the one below it is a Toolbar where we have many tools that we can use to create the fabrics. Right now, only a few of them are active.

One of them is New where we used to create the knit fabric and over here, we have New (Weave) and Weave Edit, which we use these functions to create a woven fabric, and to my left here is a page list where we will see many fabric pages appear right here when we create the fabric and to the right.

Here is the right menu where we can find the zoom tool Pantone color and so on... and of course the center area here where we will see the page appears. 

Then come down. Here is the bottom menu Where we can show or hide the menu. For example, if I want to hide the toolbar, I can just click on here to hide the toolbar. Then I can click on it once again to show the toolbar. The same with this menu over here I can click on it to hide or to zoom tool.

Now we can begin creating the knit fabric. To create the knit fabric I will go to the Toolbar and select New, click on it. Then this new window pops up I will name it Cotto cable knit with heart. After that to the right, here is texture.

By default, it is 7 G. If I want to select a different number I will click on the twirling menu here to expand and

As you can see, we have between 1G to 21 G. So first of all, let me explain to you a little bit about what G stands for. G stands for gauge, so the higher the number. Of gauge the finer the fabric will be. For this example, I will select 7G and after that, I will click on OK to confirm. 

So next we have this gauge input non-shaping which allows us to type in the width. Right here and at the height of the page that we want to create So, for this seamless repeat fabric, I want to change the width to 10 centimeters and then I'm going to press the tab key on the keyboard, and I'm going to type in 10 centimeters for height. Then I'm going to press the tab key once again. 

And be sure this seamless repeat pattern box is checked then if I look down here, I want to make sure that is 7 G, and instead of 1 by 1 rib, I want to select this user box here OK. And the color I can either choose to change the color here and then. Click on OK to confirm or I can also change the color later.

So now I'm going to click on OK to confirm. OK, it looks like just the blank page here happening, but no worry because the data have been created. All I need to do here is come to Loop Edit in this toolbar, and click on it to bring this set gauge window. 

So by default we have. 7G and down here Display Set Gauge before. starting Loop Edit box is checked, that's what we want. We pretty much leave everything as is and select OK. Next, I will come down here and selects this one repeat box, and then I'm going to zoom out. Bit by pressing down control and scrolling the mouse wheel backward or I can use this zoom tool over here so the zoom tool over here if I select this standard position in the center where it will bring the fabric to the center just like. 

That, or if I want to zoom in further, I can just click on this plus sign right here to zoom in or click on this minus sign here to zoom out. I can also use my favorite command here, control plus rolling the mouse wheel forward to zoom in. 

And then control plus rolling the mouse wheel backward to zoom out, which is really useful after that. This is a cool part. OK, I'm going to come over here. 

To this pattern. Icon and I'm going to click one on it, so this pattern will bring me to this many selections of patterns that I can select from. So, for this example, I want to select this heart-shaped cable knit. Let's say I want to. Select a different kind of pattern, I can click on that pattern folder link1 and then Scroll down to see what the patterns that we have

However, though, for this example I'm going to select this cable2 folder, then I'm going to Scroll down until I see zero 31 and I'm going to click on that pattern to select and now the pattern is loaded to my page. Next, I will adjust. This pattern to the corner by just hovering the mouse over that plus sign right there left click and then dragging to the left and then down a little bit.

I want to fit this into this corner OK. After that, I will come over here and click on that ground layer because I want to select the size here. This size allows me to change the page’s size, so if I hover the mouse over to this right edge here, left-click, and then drag in to fit the pattern.

As well as from the top here, if I hover the mouse over that edge right there, you see this both-direction arrow clicks on it and then drag in until it reaches this part right there. OK, after that I'm going to click on OK to confirm so we have a little issue here. OK, sometimes it is hard for us to see closely if we adjust the page correctly.

For this example, I kind of dragged in a little bit too far. So I'm going to go back and either select this undo button here to undo or selects the redo to redo and then come back over here you see, my ground layer is still selected. I will go to this Size icon once again, and I'm going to this time

Let's zoom in a little further. So it's easy for us to see, and I'm going to pan it down by just scrolling the mouse wheel forward to pan it down just like that. And then I'm going to just hover the mouse over here.

So right here. You see how this pattern has this extra piece after it. We have to do some Trial and error.

Here if I move the marching ants up here to get it all fit, I have to check if the pattern fits correctly. To do so, I'm going to come over here and click on OK, and then I will select this Repeat box here to see how the pattern fit. OK, let me zoom out a little

I want to see how the pattern fits together for this example as you can see here, this thick line appears, which is not what I want. It doesn't look so good. OK, so I'm going to select this 1-repeat, and I want to adjust that pattern. Let me zoom in just a little bit, so pressing down the control plus scrolling the mouse wheel forward and then backward.

After that, I'm going to click on this undo button here to undo. Now I'm going to select that Size icon once again. OK, this is so, this is just a quick tip. Be sure you are on that ground layer before that size function is working. OK, so now I'm going to click on that size icon once again and I'm going to hover the mouse just a little bit further here and I wanted to just right at this edge.

OK, just like that. Next, I'm going to click on OK. Once again, to confirm, now I'm going to come over here to this Repeat function

and click on it. OK, so now the pattern looks better, and the thick line is not there anymore, which is that's what we want. 

So after that, I'm safe to select this loop simulation to bring this loop simulation window, so in this menu be sure this Intarsia/Structure box is checked, 7G, perfect. And we want this to be High quality (structure), Random minimum of 5%, Quality medium.

And this Create new page box is checked and this is important. We want the resolution to be 200 and over. here make Shadowbox is checked. After that, I'm going to click on this Execute. OK since we are going to create a cotton fabric we want to change our yarn here to cotton. OK to change the yarn. 

I have two options. I can either click on this yarn here and come to the yarn bank or let me cancel that or selects this 'all select' yarn, which is really useful if you have more than one yarn that you want to change. OK, they're both options work just fine, so since I only have one yarn, I can click on that yarn right there and navigate to my cotton yarn. 

I'm going to look for ‘textdefault3’ right there. OK. And this is the one I want, ‘Cotton01’ yarn, and I’m going to click on that and then come down here and click on OK. Be sure this auto-size box is checked and come down here.

So again, this is cotton count, which is exactly what I want. If yours does not have cotton count there, just click on the twirling menu to expand, and you can select from the wool count.  Cotton count and so on.  For this example, I will select cotton count here.  Then I'm going to click on OK to confirm.  OK, this is cool. Now we just created this perfect heart-shaped knit fabric. However, based on our hoodie we have a pink color knit fabric, and right now this color doesn't matter.

So I have to go back and change the color. To do that, I will select this Execute. Button one more time and then. I have to click on this. Color chip right here. OK, this is cool guys, to select the color. I can either just use the color pickers just like that and click anywhere to select the color and as you can see the color reflected instantly.

It's really cool. Or you can use this color slider to get how you want. Or I can come. Down here and pick the color chip right here, which is the color that I created earlier. So since the hoodie is pink. I'm going to select this pink color right here and then. I'm going to click on OK to confirm. 

Now be sure is the auto side checks. And Cotton Count after that I'm going to click on OK. And that is perfect. Now we will click on exit to close this loop simulation window. 

OK, next we want to create our second cable knit fabric with a diamond shape. OK, so this is important for me to go back and edit this loop.

I have to go to loop edit in this menu, however, right now, it isn't active because I am on this page with this image page, I can't access the loop edit unless I'm in this loop page OK.

So, I'm going to select this loop page. Now if I look at the loop edit tool again, it is active. So I'm going to select that ‘Loop Edit’ OK, then come down.

Here I'm going to select this 1-repeat, and after that, I will come over here and. Click on this center point here to center the page. Next, I'm going to come over here and uncheck this pattern box so that we can hide that pattern.

OK, now I'm going to come over here to this pattern icon once again to select the pattern that I want, so for this pattern, I want to select ‘cable1’, and then I'm going to Scroll down until I see this diamond-shaped pattern.

That we will use. For the fabric OK so I see it. It’s 075 I'm going to click on it to select now the pattern is too big for the page. It's OK, no problem.

We can adjust the page once again, so instead of contracting the page, we want to expand the page this time. To do so, come over here to this right menu and scroll down.

I'm going to click on this ground page. OK, then I'm going to click on this ‘Size’ icon here to bring the ‘change size of structure’ window. I want to once again left click just hover the mouse over

These marching ants here and left click and then drag until you reach this edge of the pattern. Just like that, I will do the same with this top part. The bottom part and the right part here Let me move the window out and see.

Now I'm going to click on OK to confirm OK, now the pattern looks pretty good. Let me center the page one more time. Just click on that center point to center the page. Now I'm going to come down here and check this repeat box, OK.

And let me zoom out a little bit. Control plus scroll the mouse wheel backward and see the pattern. It actually looks amazing, so this pattern comes with The perfect repeat.

Next, I'm going to come down here and select the ‘loop sim’ icon to bring this loop simulation window. So by default APEXFiz Design Jr. is really smart Save every data that we have created for our knit fabric earlier, which is perfect. Save us a lot of time. However, we still want to double-check. Be sure this Intarsia/Structure box is checked.

Texture: 7G, High-quality structure box is checked, Random minimum 5%, Quality is medium, Create new page box is checked, make shadow box is checked, and resolution is 200 dpi. After that, I'm going to click.

OK, another cool thing is happening here. On Execute. So, we have cotton yarn which is awesome, and the auto-size box is checked, and here is the cotton count. That's what we want.

However, we want to change to a silver color. To do so, click on the color chip here to bring this color picker window, and I'm going to use the color picker here so it's kind of white but not so white that we lose some data on the knit fabric itself, so.

It is kind semi silver color. Then, I'm going to come down here and click on OK to confirm. Next, I will click on OK here once again. OK, so as you can see here we have these perfect knit fabrics for the hoodie.

So since I am done with creating these knits. I'm going to click on exit to exit the loop simulation window. Now we want to save this High quality knit fabric for our 3D garment as well as save the raw data so we can go back and edit for the future design. 

To do so, first, I am right here in this image. right now, I'm going to come over here to save in this toolbar, click on it, then I'm going to select the image and select OK and instead of cotton cable knit with heart, I'm going to switch it to diamond.

After that, I'm going to navigate to where I want to save my file which is in this case. I'm going to save it on my desktop. Then I'm going to select. File Type to JPEG and by default we have Target: image combined into a background, Quality medium, ICC profile.

You can select higher quality however though I recommend selecting medium because the medium is worked well with any 3D. Garments that you want to apply to plus you know save you some space. That's awesome.

After that, I'm going to click on Save to confirm. Next, I will do the same with this pink heart knit fabric simply click on that page right there and go to Save click on it and then select the Image click on OK. And I'm going to remove this end right here. Navigate to my desktop and after that, I'm going to select Jpeg and by default Target: image combined into a background. That's what we want. 

Quality is medium, ICC profile box is checked, and I'm going to click on Save OK. Now we're going to save this loop data here. Once again click on that loop page and then go to Save this time let's just eliminate that cotton cable knit and then perfect SHIMA SEIKIMy Design, and then picture directory.

That's what we want, and I'm going to click on Save. I will also save this image here as well so just go to Save. Then, Image, click on OK, so just eliminate this on cotton cable knit.

It's good enough instead of a desktop I'm going to select SHIMA SEIKIMy Design I will change this to JPEG. And then target: image combined in a background, Quality: medium, ICC profile is perfect and I'm going to click on Save.

Finally, we want to close all these pages so we can create a one-by-one rib knit for the cuffs and hems to do so I will go to this trash can icon. Click on that twirling menu. And then, come down here and select ‘close all’ then this warning window pops up, cotton cable knit has changed. ‘Do you want to save?’ we will select ‘No to all’ just like that. 

So now it is ready for us to create the one-by-one rib knit fabric. To do so. I will go to new once again, then this time I'm going to have the name 1 by 1 rib knit with. 4 Stripe, yeah, it's a long name, but I do like to have my name to be descriptive as possible. So easy for me to find in the future and we want to select texture 7G and then click on OK to confirm. 

OK, so we want the size of the width to be 20. I'm going to select and type in 20 and then the height I want to change to 24 and then click on OK. After that, we show the seamless repeat pattern box is checked and comes down here instead of selecting the user. I'm going to select this one-by-one rib. 

OK, the color. I will leave the color as is for now. Then I'm going to click on OK to confirm next. I will go to the toolbar and select stripes and this Stripe window pops up OK by default I have 4 stripes created in the path. 

So APEXFiz Deign Jr. tries to help us out by saving all the data for us if we just want to change the color of the stripe. Or the direction we don't have to start from scratch

However, for this example, I will create the stripes from scratch. So first I want to delete all these stripes here by going to the trash can icon and clicking on the twirling menu. Then come down here to delete all. Just like that now, I also want to delete this stripe direction. 

To do so, I will go to the trash can icon. Once again, and then. Click on the twirling menu and then come down here to delete all. OK, so now I'm going to create new stripes, which is a total of 4 stripes. To do so I will go to this Add button right here.

Click on one to create a stripe. Then, I want to change this side to 6 centimeters. To do so, be sure that the unit is in centimeters if you're different

Click on the twirling menu right here to expand, so you see more units appear here. So once again, I'm going to select this cm for centimeter, then I will type in 6 centimeters and click on this Enter here to confirm. Now I have 6 centimeters, then I want to make three more copies by clicking on that stripe right there and then dragging to this Add button right here to make a copy. And I will do it one more and then finally the 4th one.

OK, so we want to change the color to black, white, brown, and pink. To change the color once again click on this color chip here to bring this color. Picker window.

And I want to change that to black by clicking on this area here to get black but not so black because it would lose some detail on the fabric itself. So be sure a little slightly black right there, just. like that then I'm going to click on OK to confirm.

Next, I want to change this to white click on the. Color chip and. Then selects this color chip right here. Or you can simply click on this white area to get this white color down. Click on OK to confirm.

Next, I want to change that to Brown, so once again I can either click over there to select Brown or I'm going to just come down here. To these color chips, select the brown color, then click selects brown color, then click on OK. 

Finally, we want to change this color to pink. Click on it and then Scroll down until I see my pink color. Click on it and then click on this OK button to confirm. So, by default, this stripe direction is created, which is perfect for us ae sure the angle is 0 and we want to select Area simply click on it to select. After that, I'm going to come down here and click on OK.

So next we want to go to this toolbar and select loop edit, then this Set Gauge window pops up. We want to leave everything as is and select OK to confirm. Next, I want to select this one repeat so we can check the fabric and it looked pretty good to me. I'm going to come down here. And click on this repeat box here.

Then I'm going to click on this loop sim icon to bring this loop simulation window. Be sure the Intarsia/Structure box is checked, the high-quality structure box is checked, as well as Random to a minimum of 5%, Quality is medium, Create New page box is checked, the Make shadow box is checked, and be sure you have 200 dpi for resolution. Then I'm going to click on Execute. to confirm.

OK, so next we want to change the yarn type. OK, once again we want to create cotton knit. We will select cotton yarn, so this is pretty cool. Instead of selecting 1-by-1 to change all yarns. I can select this function right here, 'all select', click on it, and then I will come down here to Text Default3. Click on it and then I'm going to click on these Cotton01 yarn. 

Then as you can see, I changed all the yarns to Cotton yarn which is perfect, and be sure all these auto-size boxes are checked and come down here Cotton Count is perfect. Next, I will click on OK to confirm.

So as you can see right here, we just created these perfect one-by-one rib knits for our design. Since we are finished. I will click on exit to get out of the loop simulation window.

Now I'm going to save this knit fabric for the 3D garment as well as save the raw data for the future. To do so, I'm going to once again click on that image page right there, then go to Save here in the toolbar click on it, and I'm going to select Image and OK. 

Then, so 1-by-1 rib knit 4 stripe is perfect. I'm going to just remove this section here and then I'm going to navigate to my desktop. After that, I want to select the file type to Jpeg and be sure that Image combined into a background. Quality is medium, and ICC profile box is checked. After that, I'm going to click on Save, OK.

Now I'm going to save that same image in with this loop data for our future use. To do that once again, this image page is selected. I'm going to go to this Save button here, click on it and select Image click on OK 1-by-1 rib knit with 4 stripes is perfect. 

However, instead of saving it on my desktop, I'm going to navigate to Shima Seiki my design and I'm going to select the file type to Jpeg and once again Image combined into a background medium for quality. And ICC profile box is checked, and I'm going to click on Save.

Next, I'm going to click on this loop page here and go to Save. I want to remove this G here. Because I don't need it by default it is in Shima Seiki my design perfect and we want to select this picture directory and I'm going to click on Save to confirm. There you have it Designistas, we have created these perfect

Seamless repeat knit fabrics for the hoodie. So, we have rib knit fabrics for the sleeve cuffs and hems. We also have these diamond-shaped cable knit for the sleeves, hood, and pockets, as well as

This perfect heart-shaped cable knit fabric for the bodice. I hope you guys find this video useful and remember to follow me on encoder fashion for awesome tips like this, thanks, guys.