Gerber Technology to Support AxF, X-Rite’s Appearance Exchange Format
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., November 1, 2017 – At ideation 2017 in Los Angeles,
X-Rite Incorporated, a global leader in color science and technology, and its subsidiary Pantone LLC, today announced that Gerber Technology’s YuniquePLM® and AccuMark® will natively support the Appearance Exchange Format (AxF™) in 2018. Developed by X-Rite, AxF is a vendor-neutral format that enables the communication of all aspects of a physical material’s appearance – color, texture, gloss, refraction, transparency, special effects (sparkles) and reflection properties – in a single, editable file to improve design virtualization. Using AxF, fashion, apparel, and retail companies will be able to incorporate physically correct, virtual materials in YuniquePLM and AccuMark to create photorealistic 3D images of garment samples in order to accelerate the design, creation and merchandising process.
AxF is the foundational component of the X-Rite Total Appearance Capture (TAC™) ecosystem, a solution that brings a new level of accuracy and efficiency to the capture, communication and presentation of physical materials in the virtual world. Traditionally, the capture and rendering of complex materials such as meshes and synthetic fabrics have been a time-consuming and manual process. TAC addresses this challenge with a new level of precision and quality in material scanning coupled with an ability to share the resulting data, via AxF, across an expanding set of virtual design and product lifecycle management (PLM) tools like YuniquePLM.
“Today YuniquePLM already supports Pantone libraries and we are excited to extend that relationship to our award-winning TAC ecosystem and AxF format,” said Dr. Francis Lamy, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, X-Rite and Pantone. “AxF will allow Gerber Technology customers to create physically accurate digital material libraries for a collection and virtually see a material’s texture, gloss or sheen in a 3D model to understand how a material drapes and looks under various lighting conditions. This superior virtual experience will help reduce the need for physical samples, streamline design approval cycles, and allow apparel companies to respond quickly to changing consumer trends.”
“We are excited to have this integration with X-Rite as it furthers our mission to help our customers decrease time to market by understanding textile properties prior to creating physical samples,” said Karsten Newbury, senior vice president and general manager, Software Solutions Group.
YuniquePLM is a product lifecycle management tool specially developed for the apparel and retail industries. It enables businesses to connect their creative teams with their supply chain, and get the right products to the market on time and at the right cost. AccuMark pattern design software allows apparel brands to design, develop and market their products as quickly and efficiently as possible. Together these systems help accelerate time to market, reduce lead time and improve margins by managing the details of line plans, tech packs and samples, and simplifying communication and collaboration with global partners.
TAC Captures Physical Material Appearance
The TAC ecosystem is comprised of the TAC7 scanner, PANTORA™ Material Hub desktop application, and Virtual Light Booth (VLB). Physical material samples are scanned using the TAC7 scanner, which captures appearance properties digitally to create AxF files that store appearance data. The files are stored, managed, viewed and edited in the PANTORA desktop application. The AxF files can be shared with Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Computer-Aided Design (CAD), and state-of-the art rendering applications including Allegorithmic Substance Designer; AMD Radeon™ ProRender; Autodesk VRED™ Professional 2017; Gerber Technology YuniquePLM and AccuMark; Lumiscaphe Patchwork 3D; Luxion KeyShot® Next Limit Maxwell; and NVIDIA Iray®.
The Virtual Light Booth is the industry’s first immersive 3D visualization environment for evaluating material appearance. It allows users to accurately and efficiently visualize and compare 3D digital material renderings side-by-side with physical samples. The VLB combines X-Rite’s SpectraLight QC professional light booth technology with a high-brightness, color-calibrated, LCD display; color management technology; and motion tracking sensors. This allows the VLB viewing environment to control parameters that influence the perception of appearance from illumination to contextual to observational factors. With the VLB, design teams can easily verify these conditions to see changes in material performance. This helps ensure consistency between digital prototypes and final physical products and empowers designers to make more informed material selection decisions reducing approval cycles and accelerating time to market.
X-Rite is demonstrating the TAC ecosystem this week at ideation. Attendees will see how AxF files can be used within the YuniquePLM and AccuMark software and applied to rendering and 3D design.
For more information regarding the TAC ecosystem, please visit us at http://www.xrite.com/categories/Appearance/total-appearance-capture-ecosystem.
About Gerber Technology
Gerber Technology delivers industry-leading software and automation solutions that help apparel and industrial customers improve their manufacturing and design processes and more effectively manage and connect the supply chain, from product development and production to retail and the end customer. Gerber serves 78,000 customers in 130 countries, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies in apparel and accessories, home and leisure, transportation, packaging and sign and graphics.
Based in Connecticut in the USA, Gerber Technology is owned by AIP, a New York-based, global private equity firm specializing in the technology sector and has more than $3.0 billion assets under management.
About X-Rite
Founded in 1958, X-Rite Incorporated is a global leader in the science and technology of color and appearance. With its wholly owned subsidiary Pantone, X-Rite employs more than 800 people in 11 countries. The company’s corporate headquarters are located in Grand Rapids, Mich., with regional headquarters in Europe and Asia and service centers across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas. X-Rite Pantone offers a full range of solutions used by manufacturers, retailers, printers, photographers and graphic design houses to achieve precise management and communication of color and appearance throughout their processes. X-Rite Pantone products and services are recognized standards in the printing, packaging, photography, graphic design, video, automotive, paints, plastics, textiles and medical industries. For further information, please visit www.xrite.com. For the latest news, information and conversations, connect with X-Rite on LinkedIn, Vimeo, Twitter, and Facebook.
About Pantone
Pantone LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of X-Rite, Incorporated, has been the world’s color authority for nearly 50 years, providing design professionals with products and services for the colorful exploration and expression of creativity. Always a source for color inspiration, Pantone also offers paint and designer-inspired products and services for consumers. More information is available at www.pantone.com. For the latest news, trends, information and conversations, connect with Pantone on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.
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©2017 X-Rite, Inc. All rights reserved. X-Rite, TAC, AxF and PANTORA are registered trademarks of X-Rite, Inc. PANTONE® and other Pantone trademarks are the property of Pantone LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
