ShapeShifter Instructions

25/10/2006







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ShapeShifter Overview

ShapeShifter is a CAD-style application which enables sewn-good manufacturers to
automate marker production, and increase marker efficiencies.

There are two different modules of ShapeShifter:
SS-Auto for automatically generating a marker
SS-Optimiser for improving an existing marker


This document contains the following sections:


1 STARTING SS-AUTO ......................................................................... 3
2 SS-AUTO WIZARD............................................................................. 4
2.1 VERTICAL BLOCK MARKERS........................................................ 5
2.2 SETTING FINAL PARAMETERS ..................................................... 7
2.3 SPECIAL AUTO OPTIONS .......................................................... 10
2.3.1 PIECE PAIRS....................................................................... 10
3 SS-OPTIMISER ................................................................................ 10
3.1 INTERACTIVE USE / OVERLAP REMOVAL ................................... 10
4 EXPORTING A MARKER................................................................... 10
5 OPTIONS AND INTERFACE.............................................................. 10




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1 STARTING SS-AUTO

Run SSExplorer (c:\userroot\prog\appl\ss\) to activate the software. SSExplorer is used
to see the markers in an AccuMark storage area. Select the marker you wish to process,
and right-click it to send it to either SSAutomatic or SS-Optimiser.


If there are placed pieces in the marker, ShapeShifter will import them as they are
placed. You will get the option to finish the marker if any unplaced pieces exist.





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2 SS-AUTO WIZARD

To start automatically creating a marker, press the Start SS-Auto button as shown below
to activate the SS-Auto Wizard. This will happen automatically when importing a marker
with no placed pieces.


When SS-Auto starts, the user is prompted with the below options. At present, only
Standard or Vertical Blocks marker-types are available.



2.1 VERTICAL BLOCK MARKERS

These markers are created in groups of vertical blocks. Step 2 of the wizard will let you
arrange which bundles of pieces to group together. An example of a vertical block
marker is shown below.



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To arrange the bundles and sizes, click on a size, and drag it to the desired group.
There are three options to separate the vertical blocks:
(a) Overlap: SS will choose an appropriate small amount of overlap for two
neighbouring vertical blocks.
(b) No Overlap: There will be no overlap between vertical blocks.
(c) Max Overlap: You can set the maximum amount of overlap for two
neighbouring block (a negative value will separte them).

You can also arrange bundles and sizes vertically. To set this, doubleclick on the group,
and an asterisk (*) will appear beside the group to indicate this.
The following page shows the settings and resulting marker when you wish to place the
green and blue sizes first (ordered vertically), followed by the red and black sizes (not
ordered vertically).


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2.2 SETTING FINAL PARAMETERS

To complete the settings, you must provide Rotation settings, that is, how the pieces
within the marker can be rotated, and a Time Limit for how long to run the marker.


There are four types of rotation available:
One Way (x) will place all the pieces within a bundle in the same direction. The
direction can be any of 0, 90, or 180 degrees, as specified in the drop-down
menu. Mirrored pieces are mirrored by the x-axis. Selecting Small piece rotation
will allow the smaller pieces to rotate independantly of the bundle.
One Way (y) will place all the pieces within a bundle in the same direction. The
direction can be any of 0, 90, or 180 degrees, as specified in the drop-down
menu. Mirrored pieces are mirrored by the y-axis.
Bi Directional will allow each piece to be rotated by 0, 90, or 180 degrees, as
specified in the drop-down menu. Unlike One Way, pieces within the same
bundle can be in different rotations.






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Free will allow each piece to be rotated by 0, 90, or 180 degrees, as specified in
the drop-down menu. It will also allow pieces to be flipped (if specified in the Flip
menu). If Flip = FALSE, all pieces will not be flipped. If Flip = TRUE, some pieces
may be flipped, some may not.

Face to Face will allow pieces to flip. There are no mirrored pieces.
Degrees Tilt is the amount a piece can be tilted from its orientation. If this value is not
zero, allow twice as long for the marker to run as normal.
Extra Buffer is the amount of buffer around in piece in addition to the amount already
set in PAD. So if you set a 5mm buffer around each piece in PAD, and then set 1mm in
SS, the total buffer around each piece will be 6mm.
Bundle Directions is available if you have One Way (x) selected. By clicking this you can
control the directions of your bundles. The Toggle button will switch through various
options for your bundles. You can control each bundle individually by double clicking a
bundle. 0 means all the pieces in the bundle will be rotated 0deg, 180 means 180deg,
and the arrow means the bundle will either be rotated 0 or 180deg.



Fix / Free Rotation allows you to control the rotation of individual pieces. You can fix
them at a certain rotation, or let them rotate by a certain amount.
The order of precedence is this:
Options set in Fix / Free Rotation
Options set in Bundle Directions
Options set in the main Rotation section.

There are two methods of Time Limit. You can set a limit in minutes, or the time by the
number of seconds to use per piece.



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NOTE: If the Finish button is activated, this is the final step in the wizard. Clicking this
will start creation of the marker.



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2.3 SPECIAL AUTO OPTIONS

If you import a marker with pieces already placed, there are a few options you can do:
Fix piece positions by pressing the SPACE bar. When you move the mouse over
pieces, they will turn light-blue. When you run SS-Auto, these pieces will be
locked in their current position. Press the SPACE bar again to stop turning pieces
light-blue. Press the Z key to turn light-blue pieces back to normal.
Grouping pieces (not yet implemented) by marrying the pieces in AccuMark.
These pieces will now be locked together (though free to move together around
the marker). These married groups are indicated by a large white border around
the pieces.
If you have unplaced pieces, and when you import, select YES to Unplaced pieces exist.
Finish marker?, SS-Auto will then place the remaining pieces while keeping the current
locked in place.


If specified in the Options menu (section 5), the SS-Auto Wizard will bring up addition
menus to be filled.

.


Fixed






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2.3.1 PIECE PAIRS
SS-Auto can group together pairs of pieces. If you Left Double-Click a type of piece from,
then another window will appear asking you wish to pair the pieces. Left Double-Click to
make your selection.


If you wish to group two different types of pieces, then you must Right Double-Click the
two type of pieces (they will turn red). The Group Pieces button will activate and you
click this to bring up the window containing the options of how to pair the pieces. Left
Double-Click to make your selection.





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3 SS-OPTIMISER

SS-Optimiser has three functions:
Optimising a marker. This is done by simultaneously shifting the position of
patterns within the marker, with the goal of minimizing the marker length.
Removing overlaps from a marker. SS-Optimiser will attempt to find the shortest
non-overlapping marker given an overlapping marker.
The SS-Optimiser interface also allows an end-user to experiment with the
marker to gain even greater efficiencies.

SS-Optimiser includes two modules, Standard and Advanced:
Standard ( ) is for markers whose different pieces are all in one size, for
example, a t-shirt marker whose pieces are all M sized. It has a fast running time.
Advanced ( ) can increase marker efficiencies by even more than the standard
module. However, the marker must contain pieces in more than one size, eg S,
M, L, XL. The user can specify a timelimit for SS-Optimiser to run.

SS-Optimiser has the following limitations:
A fully made marker is required to begin
Bump lines are not observed
Constructs are not observed
It is not advised to use stripe/plaid or matched markers


3.1 INTERACTIVE USE / OVERLAP REMOVAL

Once the marker has been optimised, subsequent optimisations on that marker are
much quicker. This, combined with SS-Optimisers ability to remove overlaps, enables
the user to try what-if scenarios to further improve the marker. For example, after
optimising a marker, the user may notice that if piece was moved to a different part of
the marker, the efficiency could potentially be further improved.


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4 EXPORTING A MARKER

Once SS-Auto or SS-Optimiser have completed (or you have manually stopped it with
the red Stop button) you can export the marker back to AccuMark by clicking the Export
button.
NOTE: Original marker will be overwritten.

Export marker



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5 OPTIONS AND INTERFACE

You will find the following buttons on the ShapeShifter interface.

Used to start the Standard SS-Optimiser.

Used to start the Advanced SS-Optimiser.

Used to halt either SS-Auto or SS-Automatic.

Used to undo / redo a previous action (includes undoing either optimisation
process, and undoing any selection, movement, rotation, flippage, or tiltage of a piece).


Exports a marker.


Rotates the selected piece by the allowable amount, eg 180. Option only available
if the piece can be rotated.


Flips the selected piece about the x-axis. Option only available if the piecevcan be
flipped.


Left or right tilts the selected piece by 0.2. Option only available if the piece can
be tilted.


Used to start SS-Auto.


Selecting the Options menu will bring up the below window.


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Units selected means the units will me in centimeters, non selected means inches.
Add / Remove Fold-Line will give the option of having a void in the middle of the
marker where pieces cannot be placed.
Set Fold-Line means the option to add a fold-line will occur every marker import.
Set Piece Pairs means the option to pair pieces will be enabled in the SSAuto Wizard.
Set New Buffers enables the additional buffers option in the SS-Auto Wizard.
Buffer Tolerance adds this distance around each piece (to ensure no overlaps). A value
of between 0.0 0.1 should be enough to ensure no overlaps (caused by rounding
errors in the import / export process).