Demonstration of SketchPath: Using Digital Drawing to Integrate the Gestural Qalities of Craf in CAM-Based Clay 3D Printing

We present 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 or constrained system. SketchPath works to provide artists with direct control over the outcomes of their form by not abstracting machine operations or constraining the types 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 interaction 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.