Research on the Application of Computational Geometry Technology in the Design of Complex Garment Structures
Publicado en línea: 21 mar 2025
Recibido: 29 oct 2024
Aceptado: 07 feb 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/amns-2025-0556
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© 2025 Ying Xue et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Clothing is a non-verbal medium of information communication, which is not only a mapping of the degree of material and spiritual civilization of a society, but also reflects the value beliefs and aesthetic culture of an era. Structural design is the basis of clothing from two-dimensional fabric to three-dimensional creative clothing design [1-4]. Clothing from the beginning of the leaves to cover the body, to the present has not only practical function, more also carries a kind of beliefs and concepts of people. The development of clothing has become an art, in which many material materials and spiritual elements are combined to give people the enjoyment of beauty. In the field of apparel design, whether it is high-level ready-to-wear or high fashion are inseparable from innovation [5-8]. Only through continuous innovation can we create our own clothes. As a designer to find their own creation needs to be constantly practiced and accumulated. And designers practice and accumulation come from daily life, only life can bring inspiration to designers [9-12]. Clothing structure design in the “structure” is based on the function of the human body, science and art combined with the systematic combination of clothing methods, is the plane piece of clothing to the three-dimensional dynamic dress process [13-14]. Typical problems in computational geometry research consist of geometric primitives, finding, optimization and other problems. First, geometric primitives include convex hull and Voronoi diagrams, Delaunay triangulation of polygons, division problems and intersection problems. Secondly, geometric finding includes point location, visualization, region finding and other problems [15-16]. Throughout the history of the development of apparel structural design, we can find that many of the problems encountered in the process of its development are ultimately solved by the principle of computational geometry technology. It can be said that computational geometry technology in the development of complex clothing structure design and growth and expansion of the process is “credit”, it can make the complex clothing structure design more scientific and clear, but also greatly improve the efficiency and product quality [17-20].
This paper firstly elaborates the 3D clothing virtual design model and its main contents, on the basis of which it focuses on the related technologies of clothing virtual design, and introduces the technologies of 3D clothing virtual design such as NURBS surface fitting and interactive OpenGL, which provide technical support for the structural design of complex clothing. After that, with the help of random discretization of free curves, a class of stochastic curve generation methods with better controllability and predictability is proposed to describe random phenomena that do not have fractal characteristics. Finally, with the help of Phong light rendering model and color mapping, the visual effects of the design samples are optimized, and then human height, chest circumference, and shoulder width are calculated and fitted to the curves.
In this paper, a model of 3D clothing virtual design is proposed after summarizing the technology of clothing virtual design. This model is built using human body modeling techniques, 2D and 3D conversion technology, and 3D simulation techniques. Each link contains a large number of research contents. The model of 3D clothing virtual design is shown in Figure 1. The model is divided into three layers: the first layer is the input layer, the second layer is the realization layer, and the third layer is the display layer. Users can judge according to the output 3D rendering. If satisfied, they can output 2D samples for back-channel garment production. If not, they can modify it through the input layer.

Block diagram of 3D virtual clothing design model
Virtual Sample: i.e. three-dimensional visualization of clothing samples, mainly using the relevant technology of computer graphics, through the clothing 2D samples to 3D display effect of the conversion and generation.
The virtual sample garment is a three-dimensional concept that consists of many three-dimensional pieces of clothing that are sewn together, resulting in surface construction and splicing issues. According to the relevant literature and some experiments done by the authors, it can be seen that among all kinds of commonly used 3D surfaces, NURBS surfaces [21] are flexible and simple to control, mature in theory, stable in geometric computation, and are the best surfaces for creating virtual samples and mannequins. NURBS surfaces can be constructed either by generating them directly from definitions or by invoking the OpenGL functions [22].
NURBS surfaces are non-uniform rational B-spline surfaces. In current CAD/CAM systems, B-spline curves and surfaces have become a core part of geometric modeling, and among the B-spline methods, NURBS is the most general one, which covers both polynomial and non-uniform and rational B-spline methods. The NURBS method has the following characteristics:
A uniform expression can be used to accurately represent both standard analytic forms (e.g., conic lines, surfaces of rotation, etc.) and free curves and surfaces. In order to modify the shape of curved surfaces, both with the help of adjusting the control vertices and utilizing the weight factors, thus providing greater flexibility. Like polynomial B-splines, the NURBS method is computationally stable. NURBS curved surfaces are geometrically invariant under linear transformations. Linear transformations are shrinkage, rotation, translation, shearing, parallel and perspective projection, etc. There are already well-functioning geometric calculation tools, which include algorithms and programs for node insertion and deletion, node encryption, step-up, segmentation, and so on. These tools can be used throughout the design, analysis, processing and query process.
In the system, once the surface data points are given, NURBS surfaces can be constructed to form human body surfaces and 3D clothing piece surfaces.
NURBS surfaces are defined as follows:
where
In the above equation, the number of nodes of the node vectors along the
The chi-square coordinates of this surface model are denoted as:
Here
The definition of the B-spline basis functions and their recursive formulas are given in terms of
Convention: 0/0 = 0. Where
OpenGL is the best badlands for the development of concise and interactive 2D and 3D graphics applications.OpenGL makes its applications more innovative and dramatically accelerates the development of graphics applications by integrating a large number of rendering, texture mapping, special effects and other powerful visualization functions. In this paper, we call the OpenGL graphics library through VC++ to dust into the desired surface. Programming OpenGL in VC++ using MFC necessitates some setup, which is mainly done in the View class. The basic steps for constructing a NURBS surface are as follows:
If you do light processing, first generate the normal vector of the surface. Generate a pointer to the NURBS object. Define the properties of the NURBS object. Start drawing curves and surfaces. Call functions to compute surfaces. End curves and surfaces.
A NURBS surface is applied to construct a three-dimensional clothes piece, and the necessary parameters of the surface are: the order of the surface, the control points, and the node vectors. For clothing pieces, type-valued points are necessary to obtain a 3D surface. Once the mannequin has been generated, the information about the points on the mannequin is known. At this point, the corresponding points of the clothing piece and the mannequin are connected. Based on the information provided by the piece of clothing, the corresponding data of the mannequin is added to a certain amount of wealth, and the type value points of the surface of the piece of clothing are obtained.
How to find the control points from the type value points? The theory of NURBS shows that the type value points of curves and surfaces have the following relationships with the control points.
Take NURBS curve as an example, the mathematical form of a general NURBS curve is as follows:
where
Take three times curve as an example, that is,
where
A complete NURBS curve can be obtained from the above equation with the following relation:
where
Clothesplicing, the problem of splicing surfaces, can be solved by taking the same type points for both surfaces. Since the interpolation algorithm ensures that the boundary of the resulting surfaces is strictly over the known type points, the two surfaces with the same boundary type points must be spliced together at the boundary. For example, if the shoulder lines of the front and back pieces are at the same location, and the corresponding type points are the same, then the two surfaces will be joined at the shoulder lines. The surface interpolation algorithm is further improved to achieve second-order continuity so that the smoothness at the intersection of the surfaces is improved.
A regular curve with a deployment function is called a free curve [23], then every point on the free curve is a linear combination of type-valued points, and the combination coefficient is also the function value of the deployment function, so if the linear combination of type-valued points is changed, the free curve can be deformed.
Let
In the above equation, each type-valued point
In
A single-layer Adaline network [24] was applied to control the values of the randomized weight coefficients
The steps of the algorithm of its body are as follows:
Set the initial value of network connection right Select the deployment function Adjust the weights.
Let
Where,
The stochastic weight coefficient
The initial value
where
Light modeling When light strikes the surface of an object, the light may be absorbed, reflected and transmitted. The part that is absorbed by the object is converted into heat. The reflected and transmitted light enters the human visual system, enabling us to see the object. To simulate this phenomenon, we build some mathematical models to replace complex physical models. These models are called light and dark effect models or lighting models. The realization of high realism of 3D objects is largely determined by the light and dark treatment. When modeling an object, it is important to take into account reflections of light onto the surface of the object, among other things. The most commonly used lighting model is the Phong model:
1 is the value of lightness and darkness, Light Source Creation OpenGL decomposes natural light into three RGB components when simulating light sources. For each light, it can be represented by the ratio of red, green and blue light in it. For the description of the material, it can be represented by the intensity of light reflection. Ambient light and scattered light pass through a material and produce different colors depending on the material’s reflectivity. In general, ambient and diffuse light are the same for objects of the same material, so white light is observed when specular reflection occurs on the material.OpenGL divides the lighting model into the following four categories: specular and diffuse light, and scattered light and ambient light. The computation of these four types of light is done separately and overlaid. Before creating a light source, we first have to place the objects, i.e. Define the direction of the objects in relation to the light. First, we make normal vectors for the vertices of each object. The direction of the normal vectors determines which side of the object will be facing the light and which side will be backlit. Next, we create the desired light source and set its position. To create a light source use the function:
Setting the normal vector OpenGL must determine the lightness or darkness of a tuple by its normal vector. To have a three-dimensional feeling in the scene, we can make the objects in the scene have different lightness and darkness. And we know that determining the normal vector of a plane is still relatively simple. We can do this by finding two vectors on a plane, at random, that are not parallel to each other, and their outer product is the normal to that plane. Find the normal vector of the face of a triangle: Let the coordinates of the three vertices be (
The equation can be expanded to
(
A texture map is a 2D map, the color value of no point in the text on the 2D map needs to be mapped to the polygon and then modulated with the color of the polygon itself to get the final color, i.e., texture mapping, which is the process of assigning a 2D texture or data to a 3D object. The polygon mesh model needs to be textured to become the final object. By utilizing texture mapping, the image’s realism can be improved without increasing the model’s complexity.
The OpenGL texture setup process is shown in Figure 2. In OpenGL, there exists a texture memory, which we may set up in the middle of the video memory of the graphics card for the purpose of hardware acceleration. Since some graphics cards support texture compression technology, the texture memory image has an internal specific format, in the application program, when we store the texture pixels into the texture memory, it is necessary to convert the format, so that it can be compatible with that specific format.

Texture setting process
After extracting the human body feature points and curve fitting, the human body height (length) data and width data are calculated similarly as follows:
Height is the straight-line distance between the point ( The arm length is the straight line distance between point (
Then the formula for calculation is:
Since human height, arm length, leg length, shoulder width, chest width, waist width and other dimensional data are calculated using the formula for calculating the straight line distance between two points in space.
The human body circumference data is difficult to calculate in three-dimensional space and the error is relatively high, so in this paper, before calculating the circumference, the fitted curves and the corresponding point cloud coordinates of the
where
The schematic diagram of the waist circumference fitting curve splitting and summation is shown in Fig. 3. The results show that, with the left waist point and the right waist point as the splitting point, the waist circumference fitting curve is split into the upper waist line and the lower waist line, and the corresponding fitting equations are

Split and sum diagram of waist fitting curve
In order to verify the feasibility of the 3D human body measurement method proposed in this paper and the accuracy of the measurement data, a total of 10 people were selected as models for the experiments, and Kinect was used to collect the point cloud data, and after the point cloud preprocessing, point cloud alignment and surface reconstruction, the 3D human body model obtained was used as the experimental material, and the height, arm length, leg length, neck circumference, chest circumference, waist circumference, hip circumference, shoulder width, chest width, waist width, hip width and other dimensional data of the human model were measured with the human body dimensional measurement method proposed herein. The measurement data of height, arm length, leg length, neck circumference, chest circumference, waist circumference, hip circumference, shoulder width, chest width, waist width, hip width and other dimensions of the mannequin are measured, and the average of three actual manual measurements is taken as the standard value. In order to further verify the accuracy and error of the measurement data in this paper, the experiment was carried out for a total of 3 measurements of human body dimensions, the average value was taken and compared with the standard value, the average error was calculated and the results were analyzed. The results of the experiment are as follows:
Since the accuracy of the leather ruler used for manual measurement is in millimeters, the data of the standard value can only be retained as one decimal. The height measurement results and errors are shown in Table 1. The results can be obtained, the largest value in the average error is -0.24cm, the reason for the large error in this group of data may be that the hair of the model No. 8 is more fluffy, and the hair was not depressed when the height measurement of the model was performed using Kinect, while in the manual measurement, the hair of the model was depressed, so it caused the error in the measurement results to be larger than that of the other 9 groups of data. Therefore, the experimental results of the body size measurement method used in this paper were as expected when measuring height.
Height measurement results and errors
Model number | The algorithm is measured by the algorithm (cm) | Error data | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
First time | Second time | Third time | Mean value | Standard deviation(cm) | Mean error(cm) | |
1 | 167.91 | 167.73 | 167.04 | 167.56 | 167.76 | -0.20 |
2 | 175.06 | 174.48 | 174.59 | 174.71 | 174.77 | -0.06 |
3 | 176.88 | 176.47 | 177.04 | 176.80 | 176.64 | 0.16 |
4 | 180.89 | 180.83 | 182.23 | 181.32 | 181.25 | 0.07 |
5 | 166.13 | 165.93 | 165.74 | 165.93 | 166.07 | -0.14 |
6 | 167.95 | 167.62 | 167.89 | 167.82 | 167.73 | 0.09 |
7 | 165.38 | 165.31 | 164.92 | 165.20 | 165.09 | 0.11 |
8 | 169.82 | 169.68 | 170.03 | 169.84 | 170.08 | -0.24 |
9 | 172.27 | 172.41 | 172.21 | 172.30 | 172.16 | 0.14 |
10 | 170.07 | 169.92 | 170.27 | 170.09 | 170.11 | -0.02 |
The results of the bust measurements and the errors are shown in Table 2. It can be found that the mean value of the three measurements is greater than the standard value, and the largest error is the data of model No. 7, which is 2.19 cm, and the smallest error is the measurement data of model No. 6, which is 0.08 cm. Therefore, the average error of the 10 sets of data is 0.59 cm, which is in line with the expected range of error for clothing use.
Chest circumference measurement results and errors
Model number | The algorithm is measured by the algorithm (cm) | Error data | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
First time | Second time | Third time | Mean value | Standard deviation(cm) | Mean error(cm) | |
1 | 89.33 | 89.11 | 95.37 | 91.27 | 93.05 | 1.78 |
2 | 85.18 | 89.71 | 91.96 | 88.95 | 89.86 | 0.91 |
3 | 84.24 | 95.08 | 92.61 | 90.64 | 91.12 | 0.48 |
4 | 92.11 | 92.59 | 88.06 | 90.92 | 91.63 | 0.71 |
5 | 90.91 | 91.33 | 89.82 | 90.69 | 90.15 | -0.54 |
6 | 84.07 | 92.28 | 85.74 | 87.36 | 87.44 | 0.08 |
7 | 94.09 | 93.02 | 84.86 | 90.66 | 92.85 | 2.19 |
8 | 88.91 | 82.02 | 94.15 | 88.36 | 89.28 | 0.92 |
9 | 83.96 | 94.28 | 87.57 | 88.60 | 88.50 | -0.10 |
10 | 90.56 | 91.5 | 83.79 | 88.62 | 88.06 | -0.56 |
The results of shoulder width measurements and errors are shown in Table 3. The data can be obtained, the average value of the measurement has 8 groups of data is greater than the standard value, there are 2 groups of data is less than the standard value, and the largest average error is 2.02cm, the smallest average error is -0.01cm, so the average error of 10 groups of data is 0.52cm, which is in line with the experimental expectations. By analyzing the above data, the main factors that caused the large error in this group are (1) The clothes worn by the model are thicker and also looser. (2) When using the least squares method to fit the chest curve, it has a large error because of the influence of noise. (3) When using the computer to select the human body feature points, there may be deviation from the feature points selected during manual measurement. (4) When Kinect is calibrated by the camera, the error that occurs in the internal and external parameters is difficult to avoid, thus leading to a certain error in the process of Kinect’s point cloud alignment. From the above experimental results and error analysis, it can be seen that the results of the three-dimensional human body measurement method proposed in this paper in the measurement of human body size data, although there is a certain degree of error with the data measured manually, but the error is within the acceptable range of size measurement error for clothing, in line with the expected results.
Shoulder width measurement results and errors
Model number | The algorithm is measured by the algorithm (cm) | Error data | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
First time | Second time | Third time | Mean value | Standard deviation(cm) | Mean error(cm) | |
1 | 41.16 | 40.92 | 40.92 | 41.00 | 39.32 | -1.68 |
2 | 49.34 | 49.29 | 49.52 | 49.38 | 49.74 | 0.36 |
3 | 49.29 | 49.89 | 49.11 | 49.43 | 49.99 | 0.56 |
4 | 41.44 | 41.33 | 41.42 | 41.40 | 43.42 | 2.02 |
5 | 50.68 | 50.54 | 50.41 | 50.54 | 51.76 | 1.22 |
6 | 43.77 | 43.12 | 43.82 | 43.57 | 43.56 | -0.01 |
7 | 44.76 | 44.38 | 44.39 | 44.51 | 45.48 | 0.97 |
8 | 76.82 | 47.47 | 47.82 | 57.37 | 57.96 | 0.59 |
9 | 48.63 | 48.04 | 48.38 | 48.35 | 48.73 | 0.38 |
10 | 48.39 | 48.62 | 48.37 | 48.46 | 49.25 | 0.79 |
The subjective evaluation experiment is divided into two experiments: static aesthetics and dynamic comfort. This experiment adopts Hollies’ five-level scale, which divides the subjective perception level into 1-5 levels. Each level combines specific 1-10 grades as the subjective evaluation standard for the comfort of the design sample’s clothing. In this paper, 10 models were used as the object of investigation to carry out an experiment using mountaineering samples.
The user wears the sample garment and evaluates the design samples from the perception perspective of lightness, elasticity, softness, stiffness, stuffiness, dryness, wetness, and warmth during static wearing experiences. The static comfort evaluation grading results are shown in Table 4.
Evaluation of static comfort
Evaluation grade | Thermal comfort | G:Comprehensive evaluation index | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A:Severity | B:Loose feeling | C:Softness | D:Sultry | E:Wet feeling | F:Warmth | ||
1 | Light | Tight | Soft | It’s not hot | Very dry | It’s not warm | It’s not beautiful |
2 | Lighter | Tighter | Softer | sweltering | Dryness | Less warm | Less beautiful |
3 | General | General | General | general | General | General | general |
4 | Heavier | Looser | Harder | It’s a bit sultry | It’s a little wet | It’s kind of warm | prettier |
5 | Heavy | Loose | Very hard | sultry | Wet | Warm | beautiful |
The static comfort evaluation results of the 10 testers are shown in Figure 4. By evaluating each of the perceptions during static wearing, the users’ overall evaluation means for the optimized design samples were 2.3, 4.3, 2.1, 1.7, 1.9, 4.5, and 4.5 points, respectively, which corresponded to the results of lighter, looser, softer, less stuffy, drier, warmer, and aesthetically pleasing, and therefore a higher overall satisfaction level.

The static comfort of the 10 testers was evaluated
The exercise comfort evaluation refers to the simulation of certain mountaineering exercises performed by the subjects under the condition of wearing the sample garment in the laboratory. From the perspective of sports comfort of the garment, the A: shoulder, B:elbow, C:chest, D:armpit, E:back width of the design samples, as well as F:sleeve length and G:garment length were tested and subjectively evaluated, and the grading of dynamic comfort evaluation is shown in Table 5.
Evaluation of dynamic comfort
Evaluation site | A:Shoulder sleeve | B:Elbow | C:Chest | D:Armpit | E:Shoulder width |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Evaluation grade | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Overall comfort rating | Uncomfortable | Discomfort | General | Comfort | Very comfortable |
The results of the dynamic comfort evaluation of the 10 testers are shown in Figure 5. As can be seen from the figure, the overall wearing experience of the design sample sports comfort is good, and the evaluation of sports comfort is high, which basically meets the user’s demand for looseness in the actual sports process. From this, it can be verified that the extended shape derived from the reverse of the actual garment and then put into production is feasible and can meet the needs of the dress.

The dynamic comfort of 10 testers was evaluated
Positive design process for design samples Usually, the designer first conducts market research to summarize the elements of the design, and then creates a design based on the analysis of the elements. The next step is to hand over to the pattern maker, who makes CAD plates by observing the design and then transfers them to the 3D designer. The 3D designer uses the plates to generate virtual samples for modification and adjustment. This process is repeated until a satisfactory result is achieved, and then it can be put into production. The cumulative time for forward design is set to T1. Reverse design process for designing samples The designer first conducts research on the market, selects the relevant popular styles, summarizes and analyzes the consumer’s evaluation and demand for the style. The data model of the style is obtained and repaired, and the restored model is uploaded to the system’s resource library as data storage. At this time, the model is analyzed to see if it meets the design requirements, if not, a new series of extended styling design will be carried out according to the design singularity. After achieving satisfactory results, the system will convert the data model into a flat CAD model, and then sew it into a 3D virtual sample, and wear it on the simulated virtual model to check the effect and comfort, if it is satisfactory, it will be put into production directly, if it is not satisfactory, it will optimize the layout according to the lack of comfort shown by the virtual model, and then sew the 3D sample again to check it. Compared to the forward process, the reverse styling process of designing samples replaces the process of drawing and pattern making by obtaining data models for module storage and extension design. The repetition of the forward process does not cause much change in the system, but the resource library in the reverse styling design process will be enriched by deep learning, and the utilization and efficiency of the system will be accelerated gradually. Set the cumulative time for reverse styling design as T2. The results of the 3D garment virtual design simulation experiment are shown in Table 6. Comparing the cumulative time of the system running at different design times, it can be seen that the reverse modeling design process (t1) is smaller than the forward modeling design process (t2), and the design efficiency is improved by 20.49%-26.99%. And with the increase of the number of design times, the efficiency of smaller reductions can be improved, which will reflect the stability of the data. The simulation experiment can demonstrate that the proposed 3D garment virtual design process in this study is feasible and highly efficient.
The results of the virtual design simulation experiment of 3D clothing
Design sample size | Different design processes | Test frequency | Mean value | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | |||
Design 10 mountaineering suits | T1(ms) | 2437 | 2473 | 2606 | 2505 |
T2(ms) | 3403 | 3346 | 3545 | 3431 | |
Use reverse molding design efficiency increase ratio(%) | 28.39 | 26.09 | 26.49 | 26.99 | |
Design 50 mountaineering suits | T1(ms) | 13699 | 13738 | 13635 | 13691 |
T2(ms) | 16541 | 16417 | 16729 | 17562 | |
Use reverse molding design efficiency increase ratio(%) | 21.90 | 21.12 | 23.09 | 22.05 | |
Design 100 mountaineering suits | T1(ms) | 27118 | 27736 | 26693 | 27182 |
T2(ms) | 34087 | 34398 | 34078 | 34188 | |
Use reverse molding design efficiency increase ratio(%) | 20.44 | 19.37 | 21.67 | 20.49 | |
Design 500 mountaineering suits | T1(ms) | 134353 | 134162 | 134036 | 134184 |
T2(ms) | 178842 | 178917 | 178264 | 178674 | |
Use reverse molding design efficiency increase ratio(%) | 24.88 | 25.01 | 24.81 | 24.90 |
In this paper, with the help of three-dimensional virtual design technology in the design of complex clothing structure, we constructed a three-dimensional clothing virtual design model, and adjusted and optimized the surface of the design samples as well as the lighting and so on. Finally, the application effect of the model is evaluated. The primary conclusions are as follows:
After the three-dimensional clothing virtual design is fitted on the human body, the errors in the measurement results of height, chest circumference and shoulder width are extremely small, respectively between -0.02 and -0.24cm, -0.08 and 2.19cm, and -0.01 and 2.02cm, and the designed clothing structure is fitted on the human body, and the effect is in line with expectations. The outcome is in accordance with the expectation. The subjective evaluation of the physical test of the garment shows that the evaluation results of the models on static and motion comfort are high in overall satisfaction. And the results of the actual application of the three-dimensional clothing virtual design model also show that with the increase in the number of design times to improve the efficiency of the reduction is small, reflecting the stability of the data. It shows that the proposed 3D virtual clothing design process in this study is feasible and efficient.