GraDiFab 2016 - 1st Eurographics Workshop On Graphics For Digital Fabrication

Increasingly, digital fabrication technologies are becoming of importance to a number of knowledge areas and sectors due to their accessibility, versatility and efficiency. This trend has been supported by the wider availability of 3D content that has resulted from advances in digitisation technologies as well as from developments in the additive manufacturing sector. The additive manufacturing technologies, commonly known as 3D printing technologies, encompass a variety of techniques for building solid parts by adding materials in layers. The growth in this sector can be evidenced by the increase in sales, technological advances, new applications, and the expiration of key patents. The sector is also forecasted to continue to grow in the next years as advances in materials and machines is assimilated by the market. Nevertheless, digital fabrication goes beyond the use of additive manufacturing technologies. Instead, it involves the programmability of processes, materials and geometries which enable to build - previously unachievable - physical objects from digital data. Thus, it is creating a digital revolution in making things by changing how future objects are designed, customised and delivered to the user.
Computer graphic technologies are at the centre of this revolution. Until recently, designers relied on CAD tools to design products for manufacture. Nevertheless, since many physical constraints imposed on the design of objects have disappeared, new graphical algorithms and design tools specific to digital fabrication are proliferating. These technologies aim to enable the production of innovative complex designs as well as the preparation and validation of the design before its fabrication. The significance of this area to the computer graphics academic community is evidenced by an increasing number of publications in graphic conferences. These developments clearly demonstrate the increasing research effort of the graphics community in the area of digital fabrication.
In its first year, GraDiFab 2016 has the aim to establish itself as the leading venue to disseminate the state-of-the-art research lying on the interface between computer graphics and digital fabrication technologies. This research is expected to contribute towards the establishment of digital fabrication as a viable and effective option for the creation of the objects of the future. In addition, it aims to bring together the interdisciplinary community working in these areas. This community involve experts from a wide range of areas such as computer graphics, additive manufacturing, computer aided design, material engineering, human computer interaction as well as end users from a wide range of applications including medicine, biology, engineering, arts and architecture.