CAMeleon: Interactively Exploring Craft Workflows in CAD

Abstract: Designers of physical objects make assumptions on the material and fabrication workflow early in the design process. Recovering from bad assumptions is hard, because the design and resulting CAD model are locked-in to those assumptions. We present CAMeleon, a software tool to interactively explore and compare fabrication workflows at the end of the design process. CAMeleon's modular architecture allows users to execute their design with different workflows, and preview results. Users can explore alternative workflows. CAMeleon's architecture is extensible with new workflows, increasing the scope of workflows available. Based on a survey of 150 fabrication workflows shared online, we implemented five fabrication representative workflows in CAMeleon. To validate CAMeleon, we collaborated with six craftspeople, replicating their workflows to gain insights into their practices. Additionally, we demonstrated CAMeleon's extensibility by implementing workflows from three research papers and reflecting on the extension process. Our design workshop (16 participants) highlights how working with CAMeleon unlocks a creative attitude of exploring workflows and opened up participants to workflows they had not previously imagined. We conclude that tools like CAMeleon have the potential to drastically expand designer's ability to experiment with new materials and fabrication workflows.