This project is creating a design paradigm for solid free-form fabrication, based on that for VLSI. Elements of the VLSI paradigm to be translated to the mechanical domain include one-directional information flow, the clear delineation of levels of abstraction, formulation of design rules and design libraries, and the development of intermediate representations for storage and transmission of various levels of abstraction of a design. Several types of structures that are ill-suited to present design methods are the motivation for new languages, libraries, and tools. These include surface textures, functionally gradient materials, and thermally and chemically active materials. All of these structures require instantiation of cells, possibly parameterized, which is not well supported by current languages such as .stl.
