digitizemypatternCAD pattern making: how paper gets into CAD
CAD pattern making covers two separate things: drafting a pattern inside the software, and getting an existing paper pattern into it. The second is called digitizing and is priced per piece, because the shape is already decided. Every route ends the same way: closed outlines, notches as points and a grain line, on the layers the software expects.
Updated September 7, 2026 · digitizemypattern
What does CAD actually need from a pattern?
Geometry, not a picture. A scan or a photograph is a grid of dots, and grading and marker software cannot move a dot: it moves points on an outline. So the pattern has to arrive as a closed curve with named marks on it, and it has to arrive at true size, because everything downstream is measured in inches or millimetres rather than pixels.
A closed outline
One continuous boundary per piece. An open curve is not a pattern piece, and most software will refuse to grade or nest it.
Notches and grain
Notches as points on the boundary, a grain line as a line of its own. Without a grain line, industrial software commonly refuses to import the notches at all.
Kept apart
Cut line, notches, grain and internal marks each on their own layer, following the AAMA and ASTM convention that pattern software reads.
Three ways paper becomes CAD geometry
A digitizing table: a large sensing surface and a puck with a crosshair, clicked along the edge point by point. Precise, slow, and the accuracy depends on the hand holding the puck. It earns its cost only in a room where patterns arrive every week.
A bureau: send the pieces away and get files back. digitpatterns.com publishes $7.50 per pattern piece with a $50 minimum per style, read on their price page 7 September 2026. Simple, and every correction puts you back in the queue.
A photograph: one picture of the flat piece with a sheet of Letter paper beside it, traced automatically and corrected by hand in the browser. About a minute per piece, and the correction happens while you are still looking at it.
Which programs read the file?
The DXF written here follows the AAMA and ASTM convention, which is the exchange format the industry settled on precisely so that a pattern can move between systems. It opens in Gerber AccuMark, Optitex, Lectra Modaris, StyleCAD, Seamly2D and AutoCAD. For home cutting machines, the same file opens in Cricut Design Space and Silhouette Studio, and a plotter takes the HPGL PLT directly.
AccuMark, Optitex, Lectra
Import the DXF, grade it, nest it, cut it. The layer convention is what these systems look for, and a file without it needs re-entering by hand.
AutoCAD and Seamly2D
Read the same DXF as ordinary geometry. Useful when a pattern has to be checked, measured or combined with something that is not a garment.
Cricut and Silhouette
Open the DXF for cutting fabric, leather and card. Internal marks stay on their own layer so a machine does not cut through the middle of a piece.
Where does the entry step go wrong?
Three ways, and all three are cheap to prevent. Scale: a file entered without a known reference is a shape with no size, and it will be wrong by exactly however far off the assumption was. Missing grain: industrial software may drop the notches with it. Curls and folds: a piece that does not lie flat is entered with its curl, and the curl becomes a bump nobody drew. A sheet of paper in the frame fixes the first, the file always carries a grain line for the second, and weights on the corners fix the third.
Questions about CAD and file formats
Is a scan enough to work in CAD?+
No. A scan is an image, and grading and marker software needs geometry: a closed outline with notches as points. The image has to be traced into an outline first, by hand, by a table or from a photograph.
Which DXF flavour do you write?+
AAMA and ASTM, with the cut line, notches, grain line and internal marks on separate layers, which is what pattern CAD expects on import.
Why does a grain line matter so much?+
Beyond telling the cutter how the piece lies on the fabric, industrial software commonly refuses to import notches from a piece that has no grain line. A grain line is always written into the file for that reason.
Do I need CAD software to use this?+
No. Tracing and correcting happen in a browser tab, and the tiled PDF prints at true size on ordinary Letter sheets. CAD matters only when somebody downstream grades, nests or cuts the file.
Can it replace a digitizing table?+
For copying flat pieces, it does the same job faster. A table is still the tool of choice for a room with constant volume and an operator who already works that way.
What about seam allowance and grading?+
Neither is added. The file is the shape of the piece you photographed, in one size, exactly as it lies. Allowance and grading stay in your CAD, where the rules live.
Keep reading
Paper on the table, geometry in your CAD.
Free while the demo runs. One photograph per piece.