Int. J. Product Development, Vol. 4, No. 6, 2007 605 Copyright © 2007 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Computer-aided apparel tailoring with virtual simulation Marzia Fontana and Caterina Rizzi* Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, Università di Bergamo, Viale G. Marconi, n. 5 – I 24044 Dalmine (BG), Italy E-mail: marziafont@yahoo.it E-mail: caterina.rizzi@unibg.it *Corresponding author Umberto Cugini Dipartimento di Meccanica, Politecnico di Milano, Via La Masa, n. 34 – I 20156 Milano, Italy E-mail: umberto.cugini@polimi.it Abstract: A physics-based cloth modelling system has been proposed, targeted at the virtual prototyping of garments of real interest and production. The system should allow designers to validate their styling/design choices on a digital apparel model before (or in place of) any physical prototyping. Taking into account the design complexity of real tailored apparel, CAD apparel models can be defined incorporating information about tailoring/assembly features. A graphical interface allows a user to create his/her garment by interactively specifying design elements such as layers, seams, pockets, constraints, aesthetic and functional lines. A discrete Newtonian particle-based model is considered for physics-based cloth simulation, originally defined for single textile layers and then extended to real-shaped apparel, by taking into account structural properties of materials and the previously defined design/assembly rules. Several garment models are proposed as test cases, designed for real apparel manufacturing and simulated on virtual mannequins. Keywords: cloth modelling; apparel design; tailoring features; particle-based modelling; virtual simulation; ODE solvers. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Fontana, M., Rizzi, C. and Cugini, U. (2007) ‘Computer-aided apparel tailoring with virtual simulation’, Int. J. Product Development, Vol. 4, No. 6, pp.605–625. Biographical notes: Marzia Fontana received a PhD from the Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Parma, Italy. She received an MS in Mathematics at the same university and was awarded with grants for research programmes at the Institute of Applied Mathematics, CNR, Genoa, Italy and at Chalmers University of Technology, Goteborg, Sweden. She is the author and co-author of several publications in the area of mathematical physics, finite element methods, surface modelling and physics-based modelling. Caterina Rizzi is a Full-time Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Bergamo, Italy. Previously, she was a Professor at the Universities of Naples and Parma, Italy. She participated at several national and