A method and system for designing and manufacturing wearable articles

Abstract

A method of creating a custom-fitted wearable article (e.g. a shoe) having a textured surface for printing, the method comprising: providing a planar design environment, the planar design environment enabling design of a textured surface of the custom-fitted article to be undertaken within a flat UV map using UVW coordinate mapping; applying a surface geometry to the flat UV map, the surface geometry comprising a plurality of control points with each control point having UVW coordinates; specifying texture elements on the UV map by using UVW coordinates; receiving a three dimensional (3D) wearable article model for an appendage representing a part of a human body; morphing the texture elements created on the UV map to the custom 3D wearable article model using corresponding UVW locations on the 3D wearable article model; unifying the UV map and the 3D wearable article model into a unified mesh; and exporting the unified mesh to an output file for printing. [Figure 22]