Libre Arts - Valentina fork settles down as Seamly2D, Valentina goes on

Libre Arts
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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://librearts.org/2017/12/valentina-seamly2d/
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“In the coming months/years, we are likely to see for ourselves, whether a community/PR manager can build a team of developers, and whether a developer can succeed in building a strong dedicated community.”

What a story. On both sides today you can see how sloppy their shortcomings are. Universities/incubators could use this as teaching material.

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@system, this seems very out-of-date. See the undermentioned:

To ensure that linkrot doesn’t render this useless:

Hi Yuri!

Thanks for your question! I’ll try to provide an answer for you (with only a moderate amount of the typical open source fork drama) :smiley:

Project Background:

  • I conducted multiple years of research, then released the result to the public as open source. This is what enabled Valentina to exist:

  • developed a system to convert manual patternmaking techniques into math

    • reduced the math into 10th grade algebra/trig so that anyone could make patterns, reducing barriers to entry into this profession
    • found the pros/cons of over 100 patternmaking systems, finding what worked and what didn’t through actually sewing them up and testing them empirically, finding what the fashion industry has not bothered to discover
    • developed method to create parametric digital patterns, turning patterns into engineering documents
    • made patterns shareable, reusable, digital, so they can now be imported into other graphic design workflows (here is where Roman and I part ways)

  • Several developers contacted me to work with them, and I chose to work with Roman Telezhynskyi on Valentina when it first started

  • Roman was the Qt/C++ programmer and I was the knowledge base expert, and I provided algorithms/workflow/pattern expertise

  • I paid for everything including his travel, food, accommodations, visas, his monthly stipend, website URLs, web hosting, security certificates, Apple & windows developer certificates, etc.

  • I traveled frequently and built the user communities in the EU and Asia.

  • I built the websites, wikis, tutorials and user documentation.

Note: I was a manager and Senior Computer Scientist for NASA’s Budget and Time network. I have 21 hours towards a masters degree in computer science (which I did not complete because I had a baby :smiley: ). My core skills are in analyzing and solving problems in large complex interconnected systems. I left work to raise my three kids, and started this project because 1.) I was bored, and 2.) clothes especially jeans didn’t fit me or anyone I knew and I wanted to know why.

Project fork, the bare minimum:

  • Last year Roman did not accept Kim Kulling’s (main developer of the ASSIMP Library <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Asset_Import_Library> ) offer to create a 3D mesh export of our patterns. Roman was very aggressive towards Kim and me in the email thread
  • Roman stated he did not want to export 3D patterns and that he did not want any advanced design features
  • A small business tailoring company offered me a contract for work, and I said Roman could have all the income but he should keep me informed. Roman said he did not want to keep me informed, was unhappy that I had asked for that.
  • He then posted on the forum that he was leaving the project.
  • I offered to let him keep the name ‘Valentina’ as this is his mother’s name, so his fork has the name of the original project. The user community agrees this was the right thing to do :slight_smile:
  • He sent private messages to forum users, especially to persons who wanted to contribute code. This caused several potential contributors to turn away from the project :frowning:
  • He deleted my bitbucket account which held the original repo, wiki, pipeline build info, etc. Atlassian was able to restore the code from backups, but nothing else :frowning:
  • We moved to Github, went through two name changes, and Seamly2D got off to a rocky start. I feel that we’re finally catching up to where we were at the time of the project fork. I am currently asking people to contribute code privately, so that Roman doesn’t try to contact them.

Difference between Seamly2D and Valentina:

  • Seamly2D is working towards incorporating advanced features like 3D and VR.
  • Valentina will not include these advanced features (although Roman may change his mind!)

Hope this helps, and if you have additional questions or concerns please let me know.

If you need assistance with Valentina or Seamly2D, the forum is always happy to help (https://forum.seamly.net) regardless of which software you like.

And if you’d like to create a FreeBSD build for Seamly2D, we would be delighted to help you.

Also, have you checked out our new tax-exempt parent organization, https://fashionfreedom.eu, and have you seen who’s on our board of directors? :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

We’re so thankful that NLNet <https://nlnet.nl/> and others see how our project can change the world for the better. The future looks bright…

Please keep in touch,
Susan

Additionally, Seamly2D is now distributed as Flatpak:

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It was published in 2017.

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@prokoudine, are the articles not maintained such that they’re kept in date? If so, I can’t think of why else you’d state that.

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I have no idea what that means, sorry. It was written in 2017 based on what I knew then. I have no intention to make my own Wikipedia if that’s what you are asking.

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@prokoudine, that explains what I wanted to know. Thanks.

I’d say that’s why this comment section is so important - even if you’ve no desire to keep old articles accurate, information can be crowdsourced from users to provide context when it’s in their interest.