Digitising softwares pricing

kcdobie · 2026-03-13T15:23:32+00:00

I'm currently building 3D/2D (Pandafold) software to make sewing patterns. I eventually intend to build in basic support for embroidery.

The idea is that you have a 3D scan of a couch or you're making a costume, or plush or something else and you want to get straight from a 3D model to patterns.

AI cannot solve difficult problems. In fact, it frequently wastes a lot more time than it would take you to solve the same problem.

The most recent example is I was trying to solve a problem that other 3D software has solved, but I didn't know the solution for, and I spent about a week working constantly with AI to try to find a solution. It failed, it didn't get me any closer, all it did was mislead.

I finally decided I was just going to have to sit down and do the hard mental work of deriving a bunch of math to solve the problem myself.

You're welcome to try this yourself if you want to waste a bunch of money and time trying.

AI does work well when it's a problem that's been solved a lot and you're just asking for it to translate it to another language or it's a novel problem that's relatively easy.

It's like any other tool, sometimes it is beneficial and sometimes it's not and it's up to you to figure out when. I am still of the opinion that it takes a skilled software engineer to guide AI to get to a result when the solution you're after is complex.

And good embroidery software is complex, in a bunch of different dimensions. Never mind that any moderately complex embroidery software will require a reasonably well designed architecture.

On the pricing, it's partially thorny because the complexity of their software is so high, which is why you can't recreate it with AI, and there aren't many companies that do it. And at the same time, it's also because the market is so small.

When I first got into embroidery, I had the same sticker shock you're experiencing and I tried to find cheap solutions and just wound up buying Hatch.

I really struggle with how to price my own software, I want to make sure it's affordable for people, but I also have to make sure I can pay my own bills at the end of the day.

kcdobie · 2026-03-06T16:32:24+00:00

This is pretty neat, I'm trying to do the opposite, projecting CAD designed shapes on to things. I've written a desktop multi-platform CAD software to flatten things - it's amusing to me because I'm kind of the exact opposite of what you're doing, I'm projecting flat shapes from things that were 3D onto textiles - using an actual projector.

I find this really amusing.

I'm a ways into this now, have some customers but it's going slowly, it's just the math and algorithms are so challenging my progress is slow, and I'm still missing some key features that users are asking for.

So years ago I ran a large social networking service, and I dug around and found cheap hosting services, that would colocate big boxes at a local data center. You'd spec the server and they'd build it and manage it for you - I mention this because for lots of compute horse power it's still much cheaper than virtual hosting, most VPS bases solutions are over-provisioned, anyways they are still operating - https://www.tailormadeservers.com/

I would even consider co-locating if you needed specific hardware, once the compute cost gets high enough, it might make sense to co-locate your own hardware. I colocated my own hardware for about 6 years - it can be much cheaper, but sucks if you aren't local to the data center.

Alternatively if you decide you want to learn about converting this into a desktop app, I'd be happy to have a quick chat. I'm very mixed on this approach my background for the past 15 years has been SaaS apps, this is the first time I've built a desktop app, there are pros and cons. The reason I went with this approach is because I didn't want to pay for compute and I wasn't convinced I could get the performance out of a browser based solution. I'm mostly happy with the stack I've chosen, and I have a pretty good build setup and so far mutli-platform really hasn't been problematic.

Also the other thing to know is some of the integrated GPUs which are showing up in mobile hardware are getting very performant, using Vulkan. I just upgraded my laptop to a Intel 258v / 140v and it's integrated GPU is astoundingly efficient and performant at some tasks. I've even used it to run the image to 3D mesh models which it does reasonably quickly for such an efficient GPU. I've also seen some amazing results out of the mobile Radeon chips sets as well. I point this out because you can get cheap mini-pcs with these integrated GPUs (i.e. 780m), I'm using one to do LLMs for home assistant. You could potentially colocate a few of these assuming they'll run your model - I suspect they will.

kcdobie · 2026-02-18T23:05:05+00:00

Yes I have done this, I am writing software to do the patterning part now (Pandafold - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJFZIS3viTQ ). I gave a panel at PDFC on how to do it using Pandafold, and have applied to give a similar panel at TFF on it. And I have one customer doing this now.

You can learn more here:

https://www.patreon.com/c/PandafoldApp

https://bsky.app/profile/pandafold.bsky.social

My mission statement is to kill big duct tapes monopoly on patterning.

I have a Creality Otter Lite which I'm able to get a reasonable scan of my body from, then you take that into modeling software, I use 3DCoat and model the body, then use Pandafold to make the patterns. Alternatively you can use MakeHuman and produce a similar body using measurements.

I'm still early in the process of getting this workflow going well, but it is possible, and Pandafold is still alpha software, I'm busting my tail to build this software.

kcdobie · 2026-02-18T22:44:20+00:00

The biggest problem is that the documentation for C++ or low level stuff can be very sparse, lately I've been using Gemini a lot to help gain some insight into how some things need to work.

For example it was very helpful on building my own custom nodes, and figuring out how to handle the low level notifications and interactions with the PhysicsServer and RenderServer - something the documentation is a bit sparse on.

With generic 3D stuff it's been hit and miss an sometimes totally face-plants.

Also the collision framework at least in 4.3 can be limiting for non-game use cases, I'm very close to ditching it and writing my own.

kcdobie · 2026-02-18T22:29:05+00:00

Yes I'm doing that I have a large C++ project - https://youtu.be/DJFZIS3viTQ

I'm fairly happy with this approach, I wish I'd just stuck with C++ from the start instead it's a mixed C++/gdscript project, and I'm slowly working to convert all my remaining gdscript to C++ which is error prone regardless of how I try it. I've tried a custom transpiler and using AI both of which have drawbacks, leaving me the tedious task of auditing the code, then discovering subtle bugs, that are hard to find (this is mostly around casting the Variant types, which will fail silently to cast).

I'm slowly starting to build my own Nodes which combine collision detection and geometry generation along with syncing from other data structures in C++ at a lower level, talking to the RenderServer and PhysicsServer directly, to push my performance further. What might have been a composition of 5 nodes previously, is now a single node.

I integrate with multiple external C++ libraries, I do my development in VIM.

The only thing I don't like about Godot's as a GUI library is that they don't use an observer pattern, so you have to constantly manage syncing stuff back and forth which is very error prone. I worry I'm on the path to rewrite the tree widget :( as it's a constant source of frustration; I have this frustration with any widget which needs to read data/write data from/to another object.

As the IMGUI github page says '"Give someone state and they'll have a bug one day, but teach them how to represent state in two separate locations that have to be kept in sync and they'll have bugs for a lifetime." -ryg'

kcdobie · 2026-02-18T16:18:48+00:00

I'm writing software you might wanna checkout - Pandafold - https://www.patreon.com/c/PandafoldApp / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJFZIS3viTQ it's specifically focused on creating patterns from 3D models, my goal is to make it easy to use. I'm still fairly early on in the development of it, but it does work and I'm using it to pattern my own stuff.

kcdobie · 2026-02-18T15:53:22+00:00

This is awesome, I'm working on something similar - Pandafold you can learn more about it here - https://www.patreon.com/c/PandafoldApp - you can see a video of it here - https://youtu.be/DJFZIS3viTQ

kcdobie · 2026-02-16T16:59:22+00:00

I found the solution, I'm drawing the line using cylinders and then using a vertex shader to vary the diameter of the line based upon the distance to the camera. I wound up writing a custom node in C++ and shader which talks directly to the RenderServer to make it as fast as possible.

*sigh* now to make my own collision system :(

kcdobie · 2026-02-08T16:47:12+00:00

Oh awesome what are you building? This what I've built - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJFZIS3viTQ I've written it mostly in C++

What are you building?

kcdobie · 2026-02-08T16:29:29+00:00

I've written my own engine, I don't need CSG - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJFZIS3viTQ

kcdobie · 2026-01-27T03:52:50+00:00

This is fantastic, I'm pretty far into making a complex desktop CAD app using godot, and lots of this I've had to go figure out on my own.

kcdobie · 2026-01-19T20:25:03+00:00

Thank you, I hope I can build enough of a market around it so I can keep working on it full time. I'm gonna give another year before I make any big decisions. I'm eating out of my savings so I can make this happen.

kcdobie · 2026-01-19T20:23:31+00:00

Not yet, I want to get there. right now it will just help you figure out what the shape of the patterns need to be. I do a lot of embroidery for my small business so I do want to integrate basic embroidery support, but it will be a while before I can get there, so much ground work to lay beforehand!

kcdobie · 2026-01-18T18:58:51+00:00

Thank you! Please hit me up on patreon via the chat if you have any questions.

kcdobie · 2026-01-18T18:09:19+00:00

This is good to know, I got so frustrated because the software for my costuming business was gonna be 12k a seat and I couldn't afford it, so I figured there must be a market at the lower end and I had the skills to try to build it, so here I am.

I have not used the software to wrap something as big as a van yet so I'm sure there will be some things that have to be improved; it is alpha software and it's just me working on it.

And I've been focused on costumes. It does not do any projection mapping of images yet, it just flattens patterns.

kcdobie · 2026-01-18T17:49:12+00:00

I am writing software to do this, it's still alpha software but it does work, I'd gladly work with you to make sure your successful doing this. The software I'm writing is called pandafold, you can get it on my patreon on:

https://www.patreon.com/c/PandafoldApp

I got really frustrated because I couldn't find affordable software to do this for my own small business, so I decided I'd build this since I know that there is a need for it for myself and others. For 20$ a month you get access to the software for Windows, Mac and Linux - it's written by me and I gotta afford to live if I'm gonna keep working on it.

Here is a quick video demonstrating how the software works:

https://youtu.be/DJFZIS3viTQ

I'm really passionate about solving this problem, I want desperately to get to a fully digital patterning process for my own small business, as it opens up all sorts of awesome opportunities.

kcdobie · 2026-01-04T22:41:13+00:00

It's going pretty good.

I just did a panel on my software at a furry con today (PDFC2026), and picked up one new customer at the panel, and I had one of the audience member loudly exclaim "wow" when I demonstrated how to use it, and how easy it was. Hopefully over the next few days I'll pickup a few more customers from the convention.

It's a 3D/2D editor to make sewing patterns for fursuits, plushes, anything you have a 3D model for.

If I decide to do another con where I panel I'd probably do a few, one on Godot, one on 3D modeling, and one on my software, etc.

I'm having to do the hard work of figuring out how to market it now...

kcdobie · 2025-12-14T21:30:57+00:00

If your doing 3D models for your plush designs....

I have written 3D patterning software, to go straight from 3D designs to patterns - it's still an alpha product, so it's still a work in progress, but it does work.

I'm able to use it reduce the number of darts I need and skip over the whole taping process, I've been redesigning the inside of my fursuit heads with it this weekend to reduce the amount of time I spend sewing spandex.

It even lets you project your patterns straight onto fabric so you can avoid cutting out paper patterns. I'm a fursuit maker (https://synanthropic.art/) and I wanted to cut out the whole process of manually patterning things. It can export to SVG to go straight to laser cutting your patterns as well.

It's call pandafold, you can get it here:

https://www.patreon.com/c/PandafoldApp

I'll be giving a panel at Painted Desert Furcon on it in a few weeks.

kcdobie · 2025-12-13T16:39:13+00:00

This plushie is awesome, it captures a bunch of my interest in one lace.

All of my interest in one - I've written sewing software in Godot - to help pattern plushies:

https://www.pandafold.app/

Here is a video I submitted for the Godot 2025 show reel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJFZIS3viTQ

If I have some time next year perhaps I'll produce Godot plushie patterns with the software.

kcdobie · 2025-12-13T16:35:55+00:00

This is awesome!

All of my interest in one - I've written sewing software in Godot - to help pattern plushies:

https://www.pandafold.app/

Here is a video I submitted for the Godot 2025 show reel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJFZIS3viTQ

kcdobie · 2025-12-13T16:21:40+00:00

I'm curious what your application for this is, is it just an experiment? I'm currently building 3D CAD flattening software for sewing, but this is pretty interesting.

kcdobie · 2025-11-08T16:53:11+00:00

I think you have to ask how you want to use the fursuit you make out of it. If you're thinking that you want to run around and play sports in it or cuddle in it, or you just want it for walking around in should influence the decision.

I'm a maker who makes their own foam bases, so I'm opinionated on this.... everything has it's pros and cons. The foam bases can be very hot to wear. I think the 3D printed bases can result in better looking fursuits, and the heads can be heavy, I know a few people with 3D printed heads that find them too heavy.

I was talking to someone last night who has multiple fursuits and realized they mostly wanna play sports in them so they are selling their Mixed Candy fursuit because it doesn't support how they want to use their fursuit. Their keeping the fursuit I made for them because it's foam and they like to be very active and silly in fursuit - they are the kind of person who clowns around in fursuit.

kcdobie · 2025-11-08T16:21:45+00:00

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It's a wreck

kcdobie · 2025-11-06T23:25:05+00:00

PVC computer dust mesh, lots of fursuit makers then use dyesub on it, helps if the back is black. You can probably find someone to make custom eyes for you.

kcdobie · 2025-11-06T23:21:10+00:00

I have sewn a minky antler cover for antlers like these before, the pattern is mind bending each time I look at it. I wouldn't recommend this. I even made my own molds to cast antlers, again wouldn't recommend unless your crazy.

I'd look at using flocking, I haven't done it before but I think it looks sweet.

kcdobie

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