The document discusses customization and 3D printing from a software product line perspective. The researchers observed the Thingiverse community to see how they interact and collaborate to customize and produce 3D models. They found that while variability concepts are present, there is no constraints modeling and configuration leads to many issues due to huge complexity with 38 parameters across 8 tabs and 10^28 possible configurations. Software product line engineering techniques like variability modeling and implementation could help address challenges of complexity and cognitive effort for non-software developers customizing 3D models, but may not provide clear benefits for small communities in garages. Future work includes automated techniques to better analyze large datasets and help communities manage complexity.

1. Customiza*on
and
3D
Prin*ng
A
Challenging
Playground
for
So3ware
Product
Lines
Mathieu
Acher,
Benoit
Baudry,
Olivier
Barais,
Jean-­‐Marc
Jézéquel

4. 3D
Print
your
3D
Printer

5. Puppets
5

6. 6

7. 7

9. 9

10. So7ware
product
line
(SPL)
perspec*ve
3D
PrinIng
is
gaining
momentum
– CustomizaIon
also
• SPL?
Variability?
• «
the
ability
of
a
so3ware
system
or
arIfact
to
be
efficiently
extended,
changed,
customized
or
configured
for
use
in
a
parIcular
context
»
• Can
SPL
engineering
learn
from
3D
prin*ng?
• Can
3D
prin*ng
benefit
from
SPL
engineering?
10

11. Field/ethnographic
study
We
observed
how
a
community
of
people
(i.e,
the
Thingiverse
community)
interacts
and
collaborates
for
achieving
a
technical
work
(i.e.,
customizing
and
producing
3D
models)
11

12. Playground
12

13. 13

14. No
need
to
hide,
there
is
an
“open”
access
to
data
14

15. Analysis
of
Thingiverse
15

16. 16

17. 17

18. 18

19. 19
.scad

20. 20

21. Documenta*on
(hLp://customizer.makerbot.com/docs)
21

22. We
observed
how
a
community
of
people
(i.e,
the
Thingiverse
community)
interacts
and
collaborates
for
achieving
a
technical
work
(i.e.,
customizing
and
producing
3D
models)
Preconcep*on:
product
line
perspec*ve
Variability Modeling Variability Implementation
22
Configuration Reuse

23. 23

24. 24

25. Conditional
statements hell
25

26. 33 imbrications
“else” not necessarily here
26

27. 27
Configuration
Clone and Own

28. 28
Reuse

29. Key
Results
(1)
• Variability
Modeling
and
ConfiguraIon
– Variability
concepts
are
here
– No
constraints
– ConfiguraIon
• Configurator
• Visibility
/
SeparaIon
of
Concerns
• Many
configuraIon
issues
– Huge
complexity
• 38
parameters,
8
tabs,
10^28
configuraIons
29

30. Key
Results
(2)
• ImplementaIon
– Parameterized
Procedures
– CondiIonal
Statements
• 33
imbricaIons
– pre-­‐compiled
datastructures
• themselves
parameterizable
• DerivaIon
– You
can
visualize
your
result
before
prinIng
• Limited
reuse
mechanism
30

31. So
What?
• Will
So3ware
Product
Line
Engineering
save
the
world?
• Can
help,
can
learn
• Challenges
ahead
31

32. Capture
Specific
Things
• Physical
properIes
– Are
we
even
able
to
print
the
3D
product
• Specific
to
the
product
– knowledge
out
there
• So3ware
level
32

33. Complexity
and
Cogni*ve
Effort
• Keeping
a
low
cogniIve
effort
– Not
necessarily
so3ware
developers
•
More
sophisIcated
techniques
induce
someImes
accidental
complexity
33

34. Cost-­‐benefit
Tradeoff
• Cost
of
applying
more
sophisIcated
techniques
versus
benefit
of
upfront
investment
• Pay
off
when?
– For
dozens
of
people
in
their
garage?
– For
millions
of
rich
people?
34

35. Challenging
Playground
35

36. Future
• Automated
techniques
to
support
large
scale,
more
comprehensive
analysis
– Beyond
an
exploratory
and
very
manual
analysis
– We
have
an
infrastructure
to
mine
Things
and
analyze
.scad
files
• Adressing
the
challenges
• Helping
a
community
like
Thingiverse
to
master
the
complexity
36

37. OpenJSCAD
37