Digital fabrication

Digital fabrication is the manufacture of physical components directly from digital geometry using computer-controlled machines. In construction the term covers additive processes such as concrete printing, subtractive ones such as CNC milling of moulds, and formative ones such as robotic bending or wire cutting of formwork. What unites them is that the geometry is not redrawn by hand at any point between the model and the machine.

In practice

The value of a digital chain is that a change in the model propagates to the fabricated part without a new set of shop drawings, which is why digital fabrication is usually discussed together with parametric modelling and BIM. In concrete work it also changes where the effort sits: less on the mould, more on material behaviour, toolpath planning and quality control of the fresh mix. Digital fabrication with cement-based materials has been the subject of sustained research coordination, notably through RILEM technical committees, and much of the published work concerns exactly these process control questions rather than the machines themselves.

Related terms

• Additive construction — the layer-by-layer subset of digital fabrication.
• Parametric modelling — rule-driven geometry that feeds the fabrication chain.
• BIM — the shared building model that a digital chain usually draws on.