skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: CoilCAM: Enabling Parametric Design for Clay 3D Printing Through an Action-Oriented Toolpath Programming System
Clay 3D printing provides the benefits of digital fabrication automation and reconfigurability through a method that evokes manual clay coiling. Existing design technologies for clay 3D printing reflect the general 3D printing workflow in which solid forms are designed in CAD and then converted into a toolpath. In contrast, in hand-coiling, form is determined by the actions taken by the artist’s hands through space in response to the material. We theorized that an action-oriented approach for clay 3D printing could allow creators to design digital fabrication toolpaths that reflect clay material properties. We present CoilCAM, a domain-specific CAM programming system that supports the integrated generation of parametric forms and surface textures through mathematically defined toolpath operations. We developed CoilCAM in collaboration with ceramics professionals and evaluated CoilCAM’s relevance to manual ceramics by reinterpreting hand-made ceramic vessels. This process revealed the importance of iterative variation and embodied experience in action-oriented workflows.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2007094 2026286
PAR ID:
10466841
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
ACM
Date Published:
ISBN:
9781450394215
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1 to 16
Format(s):
Medium: X
Location:
Hamburg Germany
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; (, Proceedings of the IASS Annual Symposium 2025)
    Gerardo_Oliva, J; Ignacio_del_Cueto, J; Drago, E (Ed.)
    This paper directly links the abstract geometry of structural form-finding to the fabrication-aware design of discrete shells and spatial structures for 3D concrete printing through a bidirectional approach, where it creates surface-toolpath twins for the components, optimizing the buildability of the parts and their surface quality. The design-to-production process of efficient structural systems for 3D printing is often a top-down unidirectional process involving form-finding, segmentation, and slicing, where results face printability challenges due to incompatibility between the initial geometry and the printing system, as well as material constraints. We introduce surface-toolpath twins that can be interconverted and synchronized through efficient slicing and surface reconstruction algorithms to allow the combination of optimizations and modifications on either part of the twin in flexible orders. We provide two core methods for fabrication rationalization: (1) global buildability optimization on the surface mesh by normal-driven shape stylization and (2) local surface quality optimization on toolpath curves through intra-layer iterative adjustments. The result is a bidirectional design-to-production process where one can plug and play different form-finding results, assess and optimize their fabrication schemes, or leverage knowledge in fabrication design, model toolpath curves as sections, reconstruct surfaces, and merge them into form-finding and segmentation in an inverse way. The proposed framework enables the integration of form-finding expertise with fabrication-oriented design, allowing the realization of spatial shell structures with complex topologies or extreme geometrical features through 3D concrete printing. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; (, Interactive Digital Fabrication Machine Control Directly Within a CAD Environment)
    Interactive fabrication aims to close the gap between design and fabrication, allowing for rich interactions with materials and reflection in action. Drawing from craft practice, we contribute software that enables real-time control of digital fabrication machines from a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) environment. Our software not only allows interactive control of toolpath geometry, but also enables the control of machine parameters such as speed, acceleration, or jerk. This creates new opportunities for toolpath and material exploration. We evaluate our software with a professional glass artist on a custom digital fabrication machine that can accommodate multiple tools such as brushes, engraving bits, or microscopes. Finally, we reflect on implications for machine control. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; (, Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '22))
    Slab-based ceramics are constructed by rolling out flat sheets of clay, cutting out a pattern, and then folding the cut clay to build a three-dimensional design. Slabforge is an open-source web-based software application that supports slab-based ceramics. It enables users to design a range of simple 3D forms and then generate flat patterns and matching 3D-printable slump molds that support the construction of those forms. This paper discusses the development of the software in the context of our own ceramics practice and then describes the results of a study in which students in an introductory ceramics course used Slabforge to create tea sets. We use both of these experiences to motivate a critical reflection on the relationships between materials, craft, digital fabrication, and software, introducing three themes of friction that we encountered during the course of this project. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; (, Craft Research)
    Natural building materials like clay soils and plant fibres are undergoing a renaissance in ecological design and architecture. Nonetheless, design creativity and fabrication using natural materials have mostly relied on manual techniques, such as cob and rammed earth, which are limited to heavy mass assemblies in rectilinear geometries with thick straight lines. Introducing digital fabrication with diverse ranges of processing parameters to natural materials can introduce novel patterns, textures, geometries and performances. This study explores the integration of 3D printing with soil- and plant-based fibre material recipes with high fibre content, culminating in digitally designed vessels inspired by traditional basketry protocols. Computational models of basket ‘wall’ profile typologies, from vertical to convex and concave geometries, were evaluated for their resulting printed patterns and structural stability. The texture results achieved in this work aim to challenge the digital aesthetics dominated by petroleum-based or thermoplastic pastes. Distinct printing qualities and pattern resolution were shown to be achieved for different fibre types, from wheat straw to longer hemp and banana fibres. By leveraging digital tools to reimagine ancient materials and techniques, this research aims to foster a deeper connection between constructed forms and our relationship with soil and plants as essential stewardships required for environmental agency in creative and accessible design. Exhibited in several design venues, the resulting artefacts showcase novel fusions of material surface patterns, crafted through machine deposition, embodying traditional inspirations in sustainable digital design. 
    more » « less
  5. ; (, p5.fab: Direct Control of Digital Fabrication Machines from a Creative Coding Environment)
    Machine settings and tuning are critical for digital fabrication outcomes. However, exploring these parameters is non-trivial. We seek to enable exploration of the full design space of digital fabrication. To identify where we might intervene, we studied how practitioners approach 3D printing. We found that beyond using CAD/CAM, they create bespoke routines and workflows to explore interdependent material and machine settings. We seek to provide a system that supports this workflow development. We identified design goals around material exploration, fine-tuned control, and iteration. Based on these, we present p5.fab, a system for controlling digital fabrication machines from the creative coding environment p5.js. We demonstrate p5.fab with examples of 3D prints that cannot be made with traditional 3D printing software. We evaluate p5.fab in workshops and find that it encourages novel printing workflows and artifacts. Finally, we discuss implications for future digital fabrication systems. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email