From the course: Illustrator for Fashion Design: Drawing Flats

What is a CAD flat? - Illustrator Tutorial

From the course: Illustrator for Fashion Design: Drawing Flats

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What is a CAD flat?

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- [Female] A flat is a technical illustration of a garment. It's used in the fashion industry to present all the info about a garment, kind of like an architect's elevation shows all the information about a particular wall of a building. One time, they were drawn by hand. Drawing them on the computer is now the industry standard. To be competitive in the fashion industry, drawing flats in Adobe Illustrator has become a necessary skill. You'll be hard pressed to find a company that doesn't use it. For an entry-level job, it's an absolute must. There are a couple of different kind of flats that are used in the industry. There are technical flats, which are a very clean, basic flat, like this, that are used for tech packs and spec sheets. They are drawn to proportion with measurements added so the clothing can go into production. There's also a looser type of flat called a flare or a float that's more like a garment on a body without the body. Flats can be plain and basic, or fancy with extra embellishments. Everybody develops their own style, and every company has their own style. Once you learn how to draw them, you will need to be flexible and adapt to the style of the company you're working at. Flats can also be filled with color to be used in a line sheet, or they can be fully rendered with fabric to show the look of the final garment. So, in this course, I'm going to show you how to use Adobe Illustrator to draw flats.

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