“Anyone Can Print”: Supporting Collaborations with 3D Printing Services to Empower Broader Participation in Personal Fabrication

HowDIY: Towards Meta-Design Tools to Support Anyone to 3D Print Anywhere

“…We investigate how meta-design systems relate not only to the development of digital artifacts, but their subsequent fabrication. Through Fischer and Giaccardi's meta-design framework [25], we argue that existing meta-design systems for 3D file generation and fabrication should be situated in overall printing process, as end-users may not easily find associated tools without guidance from humans or intelligent systems [15]. We demonstrate the potential of these situated meta-design systems with HowDIY, a website that introduces diverse end-users to various 3D printing practices by supporting their specification process.…”

“…End-users may face many challenges when beginning 3D printing processes [15], while engaging in 3D printing processes [37], and the fabricated end-products may not always match their expectations [11,48]. In this section, we outline how research about 3D printing end-users and challenges to 3D printing relate to Fischer and Giaccardi's meta-design framework, granting a more-holistic understanding of how to broaden participation with 3D printing.…”

“…Many barriers exist to 3D printing even before interacting with any printing programs, machines, or facilities. Berman et al outline workflows and challenges towards specifying 3D printing ideas in formal collaborations with 3D printing services that insulate clients from many technical details of machine operation and maintenance [15]. In this paper we investigate similar workflows for 3D printing via services, shown in Figure 1, to support anyone to participate with 3D printing without requiring that all end-users participate with CAD programs and printing machinery.…”

“…Proximal printing services, brick-and-mortar shops, have shown its potential to lower the barrier of entry to 3D printing by allowing end-user to learn what is printable without requiring technical knowledge of printer operation and maintenance [13,15]. Online services operate similarly, where end-users specify printable designs online for distal operators to fabricate and ship.…”

“…Online services operate similarly, where end-users specify printable designs online for distal operators to fabricate and ship. However, this specification process is not trivial, as 3D printing is not What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get [11], and design files themselves often do not express design-intent of what is being printed [15,36], requiring end-users to employ broader embodied and sense-making processes to specify their design ideas into printable files [22]. In our analysis of online printing services, we found that these services serve as an entry point for many to begin 3D printing, while their specificationinterfaces often assume end-users possess technical knowledge of printer operation, which may impede many from accessing these services as an entry-point to printing practices.…”