How to Get the Most Out of Your 3D Design Software
3D design software has been a game changer for fashion and apparel brands and retailers. Tools like Browzwear’s Lotta and Vstitcher applications, CLO, and Adobe Illustrator 3D introduce a world of efficiencies: In addition to cutting down on long garment approval cycles and speeding up fit processes, they allow brands to reduce their reliance on physical samples, which is crucial at a time when companies are trying to cut down on waste. They even reduce the need to travel overseas to verify patterns with suppliers. Fitting and artwork approval can also be done much faster, since 3D offers a grading tool for virtual fittings.
In short, 3D design software enables faster, better, more environmentally friendly products. Some companies have been able to shorten their apparel calendars by more than two months using these tools. But maximizing returns from 3D design software requires wide buy-in from an organization.
In order for brands and retailers to reap the full benefits and shorter product development cycles that 3D design software makes possible, buying teams, design teams, pattern makers and suppliers all need to adapt to new workflows, and that requires having the right processes in place. 3D software can’t just be one more siloed system that designers use but that the rest of their organization can’t support.
Extending 3D Files is Crucial
Brands and retailers need an end-to-end system to synchronize data and extend 3D files so they’re available to all stakeholders at every step of the process, from ideation to design and production. Companies also need a platform that enables seamless communication between departments if they want to speed the sampling process. For maximum efficiencies, buyers and suppliers need to use tools that allow them to collaborate on digital samples in real time, minimizing the need for physical samples.
That’s why CBX Cloud, the world’s leading product lifecycle management and supply chain management solution, has fully digital 3D design and development workflow integrations with Adobe Illustrator, CLO and Browzwear’s VStitcher and Lotta applications. CBX Cloud’s 3D design integrations allow retailers and their vendors to collaborate with all stakeholders, regardless of where they’re located. These integrations are one more way that CBX Cloud enables brands and retailers to bring their private-label merchandise to market faster while reducing costs.
CBX Cloud streamlines the product development process, helping retailers and brands manage assortments, accelerate new products to market, and optimize product design and sourcing, all while eliminating redundancies and manual handoffs and ensuring everyone responsible for bringing new merchandise to market has access to the most current information.
Related Cloud Solution: TradeBeyond Design Solution for retailers/brands/importers – CBX Create
Reducing Designers’ Workloads
For designers, the benefits of CBX Cloud are especially profound. Designers can spend up to 50% of their time on administrative tasks, a complaint we heard again and again when we were at the PI Apparel conference in New York this summer. We understand their frustration.
CBX Cloud spares designers the time and hassle of having to save, convert and send multiple versions of files by allowing them to work natively in the design tools they already use. Their designs are automatically ported to the CBX system, where they’re available to all other stakeholders in the organization. And crucially, the system ensures that everybody your organization is working from the most current version of every design.
Working with retailers, brands and importers headquartered in North America, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China for over 20 years in 50 countries, TradeBeyond empowers buyers and suppliers by streamlining their daily efforts from product ideation to production, and beyond.
To learn more about how CBX Cloud shortens product development cycles and cuts costs out of the supply chain, contact us today.