Understanding the Challenges of OpenSCAD Users for 3D Printing

TL;DR

This study explores the specific challenges faced by OpenSCAD users, a programming-based CAD tool, highlighting difficulties in spatial understanding, debugging, and creating complex geometries.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of OpenSCAD users' challenges through interviews, filling a gap in CAD usability research focused on programming-based design tools.

Findings

Users struggle with 3D spatial understanding.

Debugging and validation are difficult for users.

Creating organic shapes is challenging.

Abstract

Direct manipulation has been established as the main interaction paradigm for Computer-Aided Design (CAD) for decades. It provides fast, incremental, and reversible actions that allow for an iterative process on a visual representation of the result. Despite its numerous advantages, some users prefer a programming-based approach where they describe the 3D model they design with a specific programming language, such as OpenSCAD. It allows users to create complex structured geometries and facilitates abstraction. Unfortunately, most current knowledge about CAD practices only focuses on direct manipulation programs. In this study, we interviewed 20 programming-based CAD users to understand their motivations and challenges. Our findings reveal that this programming-oriented population presents difficulties in the design process in tasks such as 3D spatial understanding, validation and code debugging, creation of organic shapes, and code-view navigation.