• What kind of objects can I texture with ArahDrape?
  Anything you see on a photo. Sofas, chairs, tableware, walls, furniture, carpets, curtains, bags, hats, and all kind of garments like shirts, jackets, skirts, dresses, socks,…
• What kind of starting image do I use?
  You need a photo of the object you wish to texture. For best results choose a photo with white fabric or solid light color fabric. Dark or printed fabrics won’t work so well. Low resolution photo will result in a low quality outcome.
• What resolution and what format of the starting image do I use?
  Choose a photo with resolution 300 dpi or higher. Use any standard image format jpg, png, tiff, bmp, …
• Can I use my sketches as a starting image?
  Yes, texture mapping your sketches will give them a 3D effect.
• What kind of texture do I use?
  Use any kind of pattern or texture saved in standard image format (jpg, png, tiff, bmp,…). You can create fabric simulation in ArahWeave, download them from the web or scan them. The size of one seamless repeat is sufficient. ArahDrape will automatically repeat the pattern. Make sure that the pattern or texture is in seamless repeat (tiled).

• Can I scan the pattern, fabric or texture?
  Yes. Scan a size of more than one repeat if possible. Use ArahPaint or other image editing software to put the image in repeat.
• How long does it take to make an ArahDrape project?
  It depends on the complexity of the project. The estimated time for a skirt would be 15 minutes, for a shirt 30 minutes. Once the regions are outlined and the grids defined, it will take you less than a minute to change textures, or to change the angle or size of a texture.
• Can I try the software before I buy it?
  Yes. Go to Download > Software demo, to download the latest DEMO version of Arahne software. It includes ArahWeave (CAD for weaving), ArahDrape (texture mapping) and a full version of ArahPaint (drawing in repeat).
  If you need help with the installation contact us at arahne@arahne.si, or call us on +386 1 439 5280 between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. (Central European time, GMT +1).

General guidelines

For comfortable work, bigger screen and high resolution graphics is recommended. Nowadays the HD resolution (1920×1080) is quite affordable, and will give you enough space to express your ideas.

If your hard drive is based on SSD technology, program will work considerably faster. Software needs about 100 MB for installation, and you may need an extra 50 GB for your data. The rest will be used for the operating system and other programs.

If your CPU is multicore, they will all be used. So the more you have, the better it will work. Nowadays 4 core processors are relatively inexpensive, chose 4 cores instead of 2 cores, if you can.

High resolution Epson ink jet printer is recommended. Photo line of printers with 6 inks will give you better printout than 4 color printers. You can also use laser printers, cost per page is usually lower than ink jet, but so is the print quality.

A three button wheel mouse will allow you easy access to all program’s functions.

If you need floppy to transfer the designs into production, you need an external USB floppy drive.

You may also choose to replace the floppy on your jacquard controller with floppy emulator, and use USB pen drive to transfer your designs.

If your looms are in network, you can send designs directly from CAD to the loom using TCP/IP network.

If you need to share your work with several designers, and like having backup in cloud, we recommend storing all your CAD data in Dropbox.

You need a Mac OSX or PC computer

On Mac, it is easy; ArahWave will run on any Mac, as long as it is based on Intel processor.

This is easy to check, if your Mac dates from 2006 or later, then it is probably Intel based.

ArahWeave uses XQuartz in order to work.

On a PC, you can choose Intel or AMD processor.

Since ArahWeave is Linux based, you can run Linux directly or in a virtual machine.

If you run it natively, it will run slightly faster and graphics will work better.

Which Linux should you choose? We recommend OpenSUSE but you may also use RedHat, Fedora, Ubuntu or other versions.

If you use virtual machine, you avoid problems with unsupported hardware, as virtual machine will use drivers which are already working in Windows.

Using virtual machine is better, if you rely on some Windows-only programs for your daily work, and you don’t want to dual boot your computer.

You can use Vmware or VirtualBox as your virtual machine.

On Linux, software will work better with NVidia graphics card, but AMD or Intel graphics is also supported.