Creating a Dart Pleat

You can create a dart pleat when you want to create a dart for example in a skirt that behaves like a pleat and is closed in the middle.

To help you understand the difference between darts and dart pleats we are going to show you what happens when you take a dart and turn it into a dart pleat.

The following demonstrates the difference between a dart, dart-pleat and dart-pleat with center dart:

The dart-pleat has a marking to show where to close the dart-pleat. This is for production purposes. All of the closing marks can be defined so you can control the defaults, whether or not to display them, etc. See the following sections for more information on how to control the marks:

ClosedTo control the defaults of these fields via Preferences, click here.

To change the default settings of the marking radius, distance, and command, go to Preferences > Internal and Text > Internal.

In the Internal Command area, in the Dart-Pleat Closing Mark, select the default command.

In the Dart-Pleat area, in the Closing Mark Radius, enter the default radius of the marker.

In the Closing Mark Distance, enter the default distance of the marker from the inside of the pleat.

ClosedTo define the appearance of the markings via View & Selection, click here.

In the View and Selection dialog, expand Dart:

Closing Marks: If on, shows the marks in the closing section.

Closed Sections: If on, shows the angle of the closing section (where the closing begins)

ClosedTo control the global behavior of the pleat closings, click here.

  1. Go to Piece > General > Change Closing Mark Attributes for Pleat/Dart-Pleat:

  1. In the Pieces area, select the radio button to define which pieces you want to make changes to.

  2. In the Objects area, select either Closing Pleats or Dart-Pleats.

  3. In the For Change Command area, select the radio button of the command for which you are making changes (the number of commands, radius and distance appear next to the selected command).

  4. In the For Set Command area, select the radio button of the command you are changing to.

  5. If you want to define a radius of the closing marker, in the Radius area, click the Set checkbox then enter the value of the radius.

  6. If you want to define a distance of the closing marker from the internal pleat, In the Distance area, select the Set checkbox,then enter the value of the distance.

  7. When you are done click Set.

To create a dart pleat:

  1. Open up the PDS file:

In this example we previously created a dress with dart-pleats:

  1. Select a dart and double click to see the properties: (notice this is currently a dart)

  1. To change it to a dart pleat, from the Dart Type drop-down, select Dart-Pleat.

  1. Enter the main details of the dart-pleat as follows:

Field

Description

Main

 

Dart Type

From the drop-down list, select the dart type:

Dart

Dart-Pleat

Depth

Defines the distance between the dart tip and the point between the dart-pleat's legs.

Width

Defines the distance between the first and second dart legs. If set to 0, the dart will be closed.

Overlap

Allows you to define the dart-pleat's cap.

  • None: You do not have extra fabric. A dart-pleat must have an overlap. If you try and assign None, it will automatically change back to a dart and a warning message will appear.

  • CW: The extra fabric folds in a clockwise manner.

  • CCW: The extra fabric folds in a counter clockwise manner.

None Overlap Shape

Select this checkbox, if you want the cap of the dart-pleat to fold under itself. If you turn this option on and you want to see the change in 3D, you first must click the Update Shape button in the dart-pleat properties and then click Update Now in the 3D window.

None Overlap Shape Not Selected

Click Update Shape, Update Now

None Overlap Shape Reflected in 2D and in 3D

Peculiar

Select this checkbox, if you want to set the overlapping cap of the dart.

Name

Displays the name of the dart. You can show/hide the name in the View and Selection window.

Location

Sets the location of the dart tip.

Equal for all Sizes

Select this checkbox, if you want to set the width and depth to be equal for all sizes according the base size.

  1. If you are defining Marker attributes, define them in the Marker Attributes section.


Field

Description

Drill Distance

Sets the distance of the dart's drill from the dart tip.

Drill Radius

Sets the radius of the dart's drill.

  1. If you are defining Plot/Cut attributes, define them in the Plotting/Cutting Attributes section.

 

Field

Description

Command

Enter the command of the dart's drill. This defines the tool that will be used on the object when the file is sent to a cutter or plotter machine, like Draw for a pen, Cut for a knife, etc.

Tool/Layer

Set the tool/layer name. This is mainly used for plotting, cutting, and exporting pieces.

Show/Plot/Cut form

From the drop-down list, select the type of notch form you want to use when sending to the plotter/cutter. The following options are available:

I Notch

T Notch

V Notch

Notch Direction

From the drop-down list, select the direction in which you want the form to appear:

Inside: Select if you want the notch to appear inside the cloth.

Outside: Select if you want the notch to appear outside the cloth.

  1. If you are defining Modulate attributes, define them in the Modulate Attributes section.

 

Field

Description

Fixed

Select this checkbox, if you want to set the point as fixed in the Optitex Modulate.

Anchor

Select this checkbox, if you want to set the point as fixed.

  1. To make sure the dart-pleat simulates correctly in 3D, expand the 2D/ 3D View Attributes section and define as follows:

 

Note: This section in the Dart-Pleat is only available in version 15.6SP3 and later.

Field

Description

External Dart-Pleat

If you have extra fabric with the dart-pleat and you want it to appear in the front (not in the back), then select this checkbox.

Internal Dart-Pleat

External Dart-Pleat

Iron Sections

If you need to add an iron section, click the button to define the length of the ironing (sharp fold) that starts from the end of the closure length (can be 0 closure length) and continues along the matched neighbor lines. For more information, see Defining Iron Sections (Dart-Pleat).

Cross Stitch Sections

If you want to define a cross stitch, click the button to define the location of the cross stitch. For more information, see Defining Cross-Stitch Sections (Dart-Pleat).

Closing Leg Length

Enter the length of the closing mark of the dart-pleat. The length is measured from the closing mark to the internal line of the dart-pleat.

Closing Leg Length default (0.1CM)

Closing Leg Length 10 CM

Closing Center Length

Enter the length of the center stitch of the dart-pleat. It will be stitched to the piece itself either partly or fully depending on the length. The direction and location of the stitch on the piece is dependant on the clockwise or counter-clockwise direction.

Closing Center Length 10 CM

Center Dart

Select this checkbox, if you want to add a center dart inside the dart-pleat. This can be used in cases where you have extra cloth that you want to remove. You can modify the depth and width if needed.

Center Dart in 2D

Center Dart in 3D

Depth

The depth of the center dart.

Width

The width of the center dart.

Closing Mark Radius

Enter the radius of the marking of the closing on the dart-pleat. For example, enter 0.5 cm to increase the radius:

Closing Radius 0.2 CM

Closing Radius 0.5 CM

Closing Mark Distance

Enter the distance of the marking of the closing on the dart-pleat. For example, enter 0.7 cm to place the closing markings closer to the end of the dart-pleat:

Closing Mark Distance 0.2 CM

Closing Mark Distance 0.7 CM

Closing Mark Command

Tells the cutter how to handle the marking of the closing. The shape of the stitch changes according to the option you select:

Draw

Cut

Drill

AuxDrill

None

  1. To view the 3D attributes of the dart-pleat, first in the 3D window, select the Select Stitch tool , then click on the dart in the 2D window.

The 3D Properties dialog appears with the dart-pleat attributes. For more information about the attributes, see Navigating the 3D Properties Dialog and then expand Dart-Pleat.

  1. When you are done defining the pleat properties, click Simulate to see how your pleat looks in 3D.

Here is how our pleated dress looks when it is done simulating: