Fabric Libraries & U3M

U3M is a digital-material file format produced by fabric scanning hardware. It packages physically based rendering (PBR) texture maps — color, normal, roughness, displacement — together with measured mechanical properties such as bending stiffness, stretch, weight, and thickness, captured from a physical fabric sample.

Vizoo and Xtex are comparable measured-material formats from other scanning systems. Niche Studio's fabric library can import all three, mapping their mechanical parameters onto the same XPBD simulation inputs so a scanned cotton twill behaves like the physical swatch it was measured from.

• Simulation accuracy: a fabric's real stiffness and weight determine how it drapes, not just how it looks.
• Consistency between design and factory: a measured fabric file describes the same material a mill can quote and ship.
• Faster comparisons: swapping a garment between two measured fabrics shows an honest difference in drape and fit before committing to a swatch order.

Filter the library by weight, fiber, or stretch behavior, then apply a fabric to a design or an individual pattern piece. Imported supplier scans sit alongside the built-in catalogue and can be organized into project-specific palettes for a collection.