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KnitKit: a flexible system for machine knitting of customizable textiles

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Published:19 July 2021Publication History
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Abstract

In this work, we introduce KnitKit, a flexible and customizable system for the computational design and production of functional, multi-material, and three-dimensional knitted textiles. Our system greatly simplifies the knitting of 3D objects with complex, varying patterns that use multiple yarns and stitch patterns by separating the high-level design specification in terms of geometry, stitch patterns, materials or colors from the low-level, machine-specific knitting instruction generation. Starting from a triangular 3D mesh and a 2D texture that specifies knitting patterns on top of the geometry, our system generates the required machine instructions in three major steps. First, the input is processed and the KnitNet data structure is generated. This graph structure serves as an abstract interface between the high-level geometric and knitting configuration and the low-level, machine-specific knitting instructions. Second, a graph rewriting procedure is applied on the KnitNet that produces a sequence of abstract machine actions. Finally, the low-level machine instructions are generated by adapting those abstract actions to a specific machine context. We showcase the potential of this computational approach by designing and fabricating a variety of objects with complex geometries, multiple yarns, and multiple stitch patterns.

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References

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    • Published in

      cover image ACM Transactions on Graphics
      ACM Transactions on Graphics  Volume 40, Issue 4
      August 2021
      2170 pages
      ISSN:0730-0301
      EISSN:1557-7368
      DOI:10.1145/3450626
      Issue’s Table of Contents

      Copyright © 2021 ACM

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      Publication History

      • Published: 19 July 2021
      Published in tog Volume 40, Issue 4

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