10 CLO3D Tools & Workflows for Fashion Designers

How can fashion designers use CLO3D beyond basic garment simulation?

For fashion designers, CLO3D can support much more than building a garment and viewing it in 3D. It can be used to explore silhouette, seam placement, colour, print, materials and presentation while keeping the design connected to the underlying pattern.

In this video, I look at ten tools and workflows that can help fashion designers develop and communicate ideas digitally, from working with existing blocks and drawing directly on the garment through to colourways, graphics, animation and rendering.

The aim is not to replace the creative or technical thinking behind the design. These tools are most useful when they make it easier to test ideas, communicate decisions and understand how those decisions affect the garment.

What I cover in the video

1. Start with existing blocks and assets – Use existing patterns and garment assets as a starting point rather than building everything from scratch. CLO-SET CONNECT provides downloadable patterns and other assets, while CLO’s Modular Library can be used to combine and manage reusable garment blocks.
2. Edit and draw StyleLines – Adjust existing seam lines or draw new ones directly on the 3D garment to explore changes in proportion, panels and construction. The current Edit/Draw StyleLine tools remain part of CLO’s 3D editing workflow.
3. Use the 3D Pen – Sketch directly onto garments and convert those lines into editable pattern information where appropriate.
4. Develop colourways – Test different combinations of colour, texture, graphics and trims across a style without creating separate garment files for every option. CLO’s current Colorway Editor supports variations across these material properties.
5. Work with prints and graphics – Use the Texture Editor and graphic tools to position, scale and refine artwork and repeating patterns on the garment.
6. Explore AI and fabric-generation tools – Use tools such as the AI Texture Generator to explore surface imagery from prompts. I would separate this from Fabric Creator in the wording, because they serve different purposes: generating visual texture is not the same as defining fabric behaviour. CLO’s current AI Texture Generator sits within its integrated AI Studio.
7. Use Auto Fitting where appropriate – Automatically adapt patterns towards a CLO avatar’s size while controlling how pattern curvature and graphic size are handled. This is more accurate than the original description about adjusting pocket and graphic placement.
8. Explore garment movement through animation – Use animation to review and present how a digital garment behaves in motion. CLO’s animation tools have continued to develop, including newer keyframe controls.
9. Create turntable views – Present the digital garment from multiple angles to communicate the design more clearly.
10. Render the finished garment – Develop more polished imagery for design presentations, range reviews or wider visual communication.

Looking for something to start designing from? I also have a growing CLO3D Pattern Library on CLO-SET Connect, including free digital blocks that can be used for practice and garment development.

Version note: This video was recorded in November 2024. Most of the core design workflows shown are still relevant, but CLO has continued to develop its Library, AI and animation tools. AI functions are now brought together within the newer AI Studio, while the current Library has closer integration with CLO-SET and CONNECT.

Want to explore colour and material development in more depth? My CLO3D Colourway Editor guide looks more closely at how colour, fabrics, graphics and trims can be developed across different product options.

Also in this series: Explore the CLO3D tools and workflows I highlighted for Technical Designers and Pattern Makers.