Should I Sketch or Should I CAD? Exploring Design Representation Strategies in Design for Additive Manufacturing Tasks

Abstract

Abstract The emergence of additive manufacturing (AM) processes has resulted in the subsequent development of digital design tools and methods. These design tools and methods are intended to help designers leverage the capabilities of AM through design for AM (DfAM). The rapid advancement of these digital design tools calls for designers to rethink their use of various design representations in the design process. For example, designers can now automate concept generation through tools such as generative design, potentially reducing designers’ reliance on conceptual sketches. However, little research has explored how designers use design representations in the face of constantly evolving DfAM methods. In this research, we aim to explore this gap through an experimental study with fourth-year engineering students. Specifically, participants were given one hour to complete a DfAM task, and their use of the various design representations was assessed using eye-tracking. Their design representation strategies (e.g., transitions between different representations) were qualitatively compared between designers that generated solutions of high vs low creativity and high vs low performance. From our results, we see that designers who generate solutions of high creativity tend to spend a significant amount of time generating CAD models of their solutions, especially in the later stage of the design task. We also see that designers who generate high-performing solutions (i.e., low build time and material) tend to spend more time sketching their solutions. These findings suggest that designers must employ different design representation strategies depending on the desired outcomes (i.e., high creativity vs high performance). These results provide an essential first step toward creating a generalized framework for designers to employ different design representations when designing for AM.