Including optimisation in the conception of fabric structures

For the conception of fabric structure, many specialised software have been developed in the last 20 years. Therefore, designing a fabric structure remains difficult, as textile behaviour is complex. To improve the static analysis stage, two new CAD tools have been developed and are presented in this paper. The first is a design sensitivity analysis module to give designers a better structural behaviour understanding. The second is an optimisation module, which determine the optimal adjustments leading to a structure satisfying the different requirements. All of these are illustrated by some examples.