Multi-layered weaving is a technique for weaving multiple layers in tandem through selective warp and weft interlacement, offering unique opportunities for HCI design research, in whole-garment construction, e-textiles, and 3D fabrication. Multilayer weaving is a complex process with varied design methods and fabrication workflows that are not optimized for in most weaving design tools. We believe that HCI researchers can benefit from multilayer weaving as a manufacturing technique and could contribute to the development of new computational design tools for weaving. To identify opportunities and alignments in multilayer weaving design practice for HCI researchers, we provide a systematic overview of contemporary multilayer design practices. We analyze existing multilayer weaving design tools for manual and semi-automated weaving to identify strengths and breakdowns across design representations, interaction modalities, and artifacts. We integrate our analysis with prior HCI interaction principles and strategies from human-centered programming and computer-aided design to present future opportunities for developing expressive, multilayer computational design technologies for weaving.

Researchers can build craft-aligned digital fabrication technologies by designing interfaces inspired by craft tools. This process often demands real-time physical interactions not supported by today’s automation-focused CNC control systems. We theorize we can lower engineering challenges for craft-aligned CNC prototyping by allowing designers to modify existing CNCs to support both automated and real-time control. We contribute a new creative motion control system, Stepdance, which consists of two elements: 1) modular controllers that replace the G-code controller of a CNC and can be chained together to develop new interfaces, and 2) a modular programming library that supports declarative mappings between live user input, pre-programmed operations, and machine motion. We developed Stepdance with practitioners at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft, where we used the system to modify commercial plotters and 3D printers. We analyze the resulting artifacts, interactions, and ideas to discuss how Stepdance can broaden the practice of CNC design via physical metaphor.

Building new software tools for professional digital fabrication requires that HCI researchers understand domain-specific materials and fabrication workflows to ensure software operations align with professional manufacturing requirements. To bridge the research-practice divide, we adopt a practice-driven software development methodology for digital fabrication in an artist-in-residence program. In our method, HCI researchers and craft professionals collaboratively develop software tools over three months. We piloted our methodology through two consecutive computational ceramics residencies with five professional craftspeople. The teams produced five novel software tools for clay 3D printing and hundreds of ceramic artifacts. We provide a detailed description of our methodology through artist and HCI researcher accounts and an analysis of the integration of software ideation, implementation, and debugging with professional art and craft production. Our work demonstrates a systematic mechanism for achieving meaningful digital fabrication software contributions with mutual benefit for artists and researchers.

This paper presents the design and outcomes of SketchPath, a system that uses hand-drawn toolpaths to design for clay 3D printing. Drawing, as a direct manipulation technique, allows artists to design with the expressiveness of CAM-based tools without needing to work with a numerical system or constrained system. SketchPath works to provide artists with direct control over the outcomes of their form by not abstracting away machine operations or constraining the kinds of artifacts that can be produced. Artifacts produced with SketchPath emerge at a unique intersection of manual qualities and machine precision, creating works that blend handmade and machine aesthetics. In interactions with our system, ceramicists without a background in CAD/CAM were able to produce more complex forms with limited training, suggesting the future of CAM-based fabrication design can take on a wider range of modalities.

Skilled potters use manual tools with direct material engagement. In contrast, the design of clay 3D printers and workflows reinforces industrial CNC manufacturing conventions. To understand how digital fabrication can serve skilled craft practitioners, we ask: how might clay 3D printing function if it had evolved from traditional pottery tools? To examine this question, we created the Digital Pottery Wheel (DPW), a throwing wheel with 3D printing capabilities. The DPW consists of a polar mechanical architecture that looks and functions like a pottery wheel while supporting 3D printing and a real-time modular control system that blends automated and manual control. We worked with ceramicists to develop interactions that include printing onto thrown forms, throwing to manipulate printed forms, and integrating manual control, recording, and playback to re-execute manually produced forms. We demonstrate how using a physical metaphor to guide digital fabrication machine design results in new products, workflows, and perceptions.

Software-first digital fabrication workflows are often at odds with material-driven approaches to design. Material-driven design is especially critical in manual ceramics, where the craftsperson shapes the form through hands-on engagement. We present the Craft-Aligned Scanner (CAS), a 3D scanning and clay-3D printing system that enables practitioners to design for digital fabrication through traditional pottery techniques. The CAS augments a pottery wheel that has 3D printing capabilities with a precision distance sensor on a vertically oriented linear axis. By increasing the height of the sensor as the wheel turns, we directly synthesize a 3D spiralized toolpath from the geometry of the object on the wheel, enabling the craftsperson to immediately transition from manual fabrication to 3D printing without leaving the tool. We develop new digital fabrication workflows with CAS to augment scanned forms with functional features and add both procedurally and real-time-generated surface textures. CAS demonstrates how 3D printers can support material-first digital fabrication design without foregoing the expressive possibilities of software-based design.