Lectra Unit

Lectra is a French based design company set up in 1973 in Bordeaux which are a company who specialise in product design solutions, they are the world leaders in this field they use integrated technology solutions, that are aimed to accelerate and aid design. Lectra are not restricted to the fashion industry their systems are used across the whole of spectrum of design from fashion, to automotive design and even furniture.

Lectra offer Computer aided design and machinery solutions, which are each, designed specifically for reach industry, ranging from software for design to pattern making, 3D prototyping and cutting systems. Lectra’s high-performance automated knife and laser cutters, are some of the most powerful and most efficient cutting machines in the world, and as a result are used across the fashion industry as a whole. Lectra can be seen to be in use across the breath of the fashion industry being used by the high-end designers to high street brands.

One of Lectra’s strengths is in its capacity to have created a series of systems and programs that are specifically designed to do each aspect of the fashion design process and work seamlessly together with ease.

In my opinion Lectra has tapped into an aspect of the industry where there was a need for efficiency and as a result they have had a great amount of success. As due to the worlds increasingly technological advances the fashion industry was due an update, and this is what the Lectra systems offer the industry. Due to the production chains in the industry and the increasing pressures for fast fashion the Modaris system allows design to change an manipulate quickly and keep up with the market. Not only that it has meant that with the production of garments becoming a more global affair it has allowed the ease of transmitting patterns and designs between designers and production teams to be greatly improved optimizing efficiency.

My experience of Lectra is one, where I have really seen the advantages to designing with it. Yes, the actual use of the program is one where there is a great deal of method; things have to be done in orders for them to be understood. This is probably my biggest criticism of it as for a designer it can be restrictive, as you have to do it the systems way. Which means it is more suitable to those who have a clinical approach to pattern cutting and ones who appreciate its detail and accuracy. As for me it became frustrating to keep going through the same steps every time and often a series of steps to relatively little change. So in that respect it is a negative however in the grand scheme of things I can see the advantages.

Another point from my experience of Lectra is that on certain tasks patterns that require a lot of drafting or are large then this is where Lectra really comes into its own. As manipulating an existing pattern or block is really eased by Lectra as the steps are easier, quicker and will have a greater accuracy then if done by hand.  Also patterns that are created with measurements such as circle skirts for example are definitely going to be more accurate as the curves are created a lot easier on Modaris than by hand.

So for certain aspects Lectra will be definitely useful and I will use it however for me the manual pattern cutting still has some advantages and it can often be more evident where there is a mistake than when using the Lectra system.

Yet in conclusion I can say that the my Lectra experience has taught me a lot and will definitely help my pattern cutting in the future and feel that the unit has gone well for me as an individual, definitely challenging in the beginning. However once I grasped the basics and it was becoming evident that the more you use the system the more the it will become like second nature and I think this is when you will really see the benefits as I feel you need to have a good grounding in its price less to get the best out of the software. Even so I found the unit informative, useful, and enjoyed its high level of technicality thoroughly throughout the whole unit.