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Google “Tech pack templates” and you’ll find a ton of free downloads.
You can expect Excel sheets with dummy info and images that you have to fill out with your own product specs, sketches, logos, etc.
Basically, a shell that shows you what a complete tech pack looks like.
Drawbacks of Excel Sheets
However, you’ll find that problems start to pop up if you decide to go that route:
● Spending hours and hours formatting your spreadsheets
● Retyping the same tech pack info over and over again
● Sending PDFs by email
● Creating a new tech pack version for each round of revision
Check out our Techpacker vs Excel post to see all these points laid down in more detail.
Want a better alternative?
Introducing Techpack Live Board
Each sketch, material, or measurement is housed inside a Card - along with annotations, comments, and files.
Just one click and your tech pack PDF is formatted for you.
Forget templates. Create your own tech pack in the next 10 minutes.
One-click instant formatting
Need I say more? :)
Unlike working on a spreadsheet, you’ll never have to resize images, adjust tables, and wonder if your sketches are going to come out right in your PDF.
Let Techpacker’s rendering system do all the heavy lifting.
Simply drag and drop your flat sketches into the platform, input your measurement specs and materials.
Click one button and Voila.
Your tech pack is instantly formatted and created as a PDF document.
Every image, table, annotation, and text inside is perfectly aligned in a snap.
Repeated information such as logo, company info, and page numbers are also plugged in for you.
You can now focus on actual product design and what goes into your tech pack instead of spending hours formatting your tech pack.
Everything is auto-organized
Working with Excel is like trying to force puzzle pieces to fit. You’re trying to shove annotations, images, tables, and text inside one document that simply wasn’t meant for it. If you’ve ever felt awkward about it, you’re not alone.
Tech packs and spreadsheets are fundamentally incompatible. This leads you to have bits and pieces of your tech pack scattered across folders, shared drives, and emails.
With Techpacker, you won’t have to constantly switch between Illustrator, Excel, Dropbox, and email.
Your design info is grouped inside Cards - each representing a specific design detail in your garment.
That means every sketch, material, measurement - along with comments, files and annotations are systematically organized for you.
Every time feedback is provided, a product spec is changed or a new file is uploaded, you’ll find it right inside that particular Card.
Instead of being fragmented, your design info is safely stored in one place and intelligently linked.
Reuse your design details in one click
Starting to see a pattern here?
A Techpack Live Board thinks, breathes, and minimizes data entry that would otherwise sap your energy. That’s because creating and revising tech packs can be a grind, especially if you do it on a spreadsheet. Design info lays dead, disconnected between rows and tabs. You have to constantly change tiny details over and over again. And add the same design info season after season…tech pack after tech pack.
What if you could reuse any design detail with one simple drag of the mouse?
All you have to do is drag your Card from your Library and drop it in your Techpack. You can also turn measurement tables into templates and reuse them in one click. You can even connect your Cards together to update them simultaneously in one go.
These features all stem from one driving principle of the Techpack Live Board: every design info should be linked together, uniform, and easily reusable.
Direct annotations (no need for Illustrator)
Adding construction information to your tech pack is a relatively simple, but very tedious task. It involves using Adobe Illustrator to draw annotations and create callouts on your technical sketches to point out important details in your design.
Unlike working on an Excel spreadsheet, you can take a more direct approach on a Techpack Live Board.
Simply click and drag to annotate your sketches. Once a line is drawn, a corresponding callout field will appear for you to fill out. This makes it really easy to label each arrow.
Your annotations and callouts are then numbered and laid out for you in a table in your Techpack PDF.
That’s right, the entire table is instantly created and formatted for you. No need to do painstakingly do it on Excel.
Communicate live with pinpoint accuracy
Start using tech pack templates and you’ll fall prey to the classic email back and forth.
Got an update for a team member? Send an email and attach a file. Got feedback for a freelancer. Another email and another file. Have a request for your manufacturer? You guessed it.
A Techpack Live Board has instant communication built-in. You can remove emails from the equation and chat in real-time inside any Card.
These compartmentalized chat rooms let you assign feedback, changes, and requests with pinpoint accuracy to a specific part of your garment.
Any sketch, due date, comment, or file related to that convo is organized right inside that very same chatroom.
Conversations aren’t spilled out all over the place or collected in one messy inbox.
One shared version of the truth
Excel spreadsheets do not give you a holistic view of your product development process. Again, that’s because they are static and offline. Every new version has to be generated as a PDF and stored somewhere. Every update has to be alerted through email. Shared version of the truth - live doc - updated for everyone - collaboration
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Go from this.. Boring old static spreadsheet
To this… Self-organized Techpack board
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