Abstract: A system and method for providing surface detail to mathematically defined three-dimensional surfaces which preserves the specific dimensional integrity of the surface detail image being mapped to provide dimensionally correct surface detail. This is accomplished by performing the intermediate step of mapping the surface detail image to a two-dimensional flattened pattern piece representation of the surface and thereafter mapping this representation to the three-dimensional surface. The system and method of the present invention may be used as one function of a greater three-dimensional computer aided design system for any industry which utilizes flat sheets of material formed or assembled into a finished product including textiles, apparel, footwear, upholstered furnishings, automotive or interior design.

Abstract: A system and method for correcting errors in the colors of an image in a computer-aided design system; such errors being introduced by a process such as the production of a hard-copy of an image displayed on a graphic CRT. Tools are provided for the user to select "registered" colors and to determine, either manually or by system calculation, corrected values of such registered colors that will produce the desired image on the hard-copy. The manual selection technique provides tools for iteratively creating charts of related, but varied, color squares and sending the charts to the output device. The resulting hard-copy is compared by the user with the chart displayed on the CRT and the user's selection is processed by the system. In the other technique, the hard-copy image of such color chart is re-entered to the system through an input device and the error between the original and processed color patches is calculated and applied to determine corrected colors.

Abstract: A system and method for providing surface detail to computer generated two-dimensional graphic images of apparel or other free-form surfaces such that the three-dimensional appearance of the image is provided or enhanced. That is accomplished through a combination of user-controlled mesh generation for providing the topology of the image "surface" and a texture-mapping technique for applying the surface detail once the mesh has been generated. The system and method of the present invention may be used as one function of a larger two-dimensional computer aided design system for apparel, footwear, textiles, interior design, or other applications where the user may wish to add surface detail to a two-dimensional computer image of a three-dimensional object or surface.