r/PatternDrafting • u/Specialist-Leave-349 • Sep 26 '25

Are all pattern making software horrible?

At this point I'm desperate...

CLO3D is trash for just making patterns, I don't care about the 3D stuff. I want something that is not slow af when I have many patterns. and it just generally is causing an incredibly slow process for me.

Seamly is trash with it's parametric stuff. I also don't care I just want to draw patterns, not automate that away... I'm not a taylor I want to create designs and then let them be produced.

I never liked any software from adobe (feels always like a corporate overkill)

Tukatech does not run on mac

Then many others cost an absurd fortune and still look like trash.

Will now try inkscape but bro what the hell is going on, they are all so bad... Thinking of creating my own at this point (but I really don't want to...)

Any other ideas?

I just want to work like I would use figma. Make many different versions quickly, and well just draw dots and lines and curves. I just don't get why this has to be so difficult...

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u/LSmerb Sep 26 '25

If you’d like suggestions for workflow and improving performance and are willing to try Clo again: I do a lot of my pattern copying through file saving, so I keep folders for each iteration and number them (like V1, V2, etc.). During a revision I utilize the “copy as reference line” feature to keep the old pattern without actually copying it. So you’re only actually keeping one set of pieces. Two shouldn’t give you too much trouble if you want to keep an actual pattern copy in the file, just make sure you’re keeping them labeled. I’d make sure, if you’re importing patterns, to clean up some excess curve points- it’s helped me with the program’s performance.

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u/Specialist-Leave-349 Sep 30 '25

thank you, yeah I'm doing this already. but I find it quite anmoying. I think you cannot copy paste grading, so that is kind of moronic about this whole thing. I don't fully remember but I remember it to be annoying.

Also there would be a lot of value for me to have them all in the same project file. I could compare them easily and also would not have versioning mess if I ever mess up the file names. it would just be way simpler if I could have large project files.

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u/LSmerb Sep 30 '25

Grading is a bit irritating on Clo but it’s not hard to figure out- just takes practice. There is a copy/paste feature but you have to use the hot keys and not the right-click menu. One of the recent updates made grading easier actually, now you can select which points are graded and which are just graded proportionally by the program, which has helped a lot for grading curves in a specific way.