Jonathan Clark, Liba Xia and Mark R. Cutkosky
Center for Design Research
Stanford University
Stanford, CA, 94305
We describe a Java process editor to assist designers with the creation of complex, multi-material prototypes via a layered manufacturing process. Designers should generally participate in the manufacturing planning of such parts because many planning decisions are based on functional considerations. For maximum flexibility, the process planning tool should work in a collaborative environment with multiple CAD systems. These considerations have lead us to develop an interactive editor that is built atop a Java agent infrastructure and communicates with commercial CAD systems via their applications programming interfaces.