Interactive Modeling for Craft Band Design
Yuki Igarashi
School of Interdisciplinary Mathematical Sciences
Meiji University / JST PRESTOTokyo, JAPANyukim@acm.org

CCS CONCEPTS• Computing methodologies → Computer graphics → Shapemodeling → Mesh models

KEYWORDS
Modeling, Craft, Interactive System, Novice Users
ACM Reference format:
Yuki Igarashi. 2018. Interactive Modeling for Craft Band Design. In
Proceedings of SA '18 Posters, December 04-07, 2018, Tokyo, Japan.
ACM 978-1-4503-6063-0/18/12. https://10.1145/3283289.3283298

1Figure 1: Design example.

INTRODUCTION

Although traditional computer-aided design (CAD) systems aremainly intended for expert users, research involving systems
incorporating CG and interactive techniques that are easy to use
by novices is also active. In this paper, we propose a design
support system that can be used by a novice to easily design acraft band object of his or her desired pattern. We propose analgorithm that can automatically calculate geometric shapes basedon rectangular parallelepipeds and cylinders according to the sizes
desired by users (Fig. 1).
Craft band creation involves cutting strips of paper tape called
craft bands to appropriate lengths, and then creating the object bybraiding the strips together. (Fig. 2 left). It is a process that is
popular with children today because it allows them to handcraft
easy-to-enjoy objects such as dishes, bags, or baskets using offthe-shelf patterns. Craft bands are usually connected to belt-likeshapes with 12 cores flattened and glued together (Fig. 2 right).
Techniques for quickly outputting 3D shapes to the real world
have also been proposed. Tao et al. [2017] proposed a method forautomatically generating a plurality of band type shapes, and thendeveloping them into 2D patterns. Takezawa et al. [2016]
introduced a system that can be used to reconstruct freeform
objects by using orthogonal two-layered and woven principal
strips. We aimed at a system that allows novices to easily use
patterns with equal widths.

Figure 2: Examples of craft bands.

2SYSTEM

We implemented the proposed system with JavaTM. When starting
the system, the user first selects whether it is a rectangularparallelepiped or cylindrical shape, and then inputs the size of theoutline. The system then automatically calculates and presents theinitial shape. The system also allows the user to see the result inreal time while correcting details such as the width and color of
the craft band, numbers, and shape.
After the modifications are entered, the color and length ofeach of the craft bands that will ultimately be required arecalculated and presented to the user. The system guides themanual construction of the designed physical craft band byproviding step-by-step instructions (Fig. 3). The user can thenactually fabricate the object while using this construction guide.

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SA’18 Posters, December 04-07, 2018, Tokyo, Japan© 2018 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). 978-1-4503-6063-0/18/12.

https://doi.org/10.1145/3283289.3283298

Figure 3: Construction Guide.

SIGGRAPH Asia’18 Posters,

2.1

Interactive Modeling for Craft Band Design

Rectangular Parallelepiped Design

In the rectangular parallelepiped shape (Figs.2 and 4), the system
automatically generates the shape by taking the width, depth, andheight as input. These three numbers can be changed interactively.
When creating a box, there are three kinds of craft bands that need
to be used. One is a craft band in the width direction, which isused as for the vertical side V. The second is a craft band in thewidth direction, which is only intended for the bottom surface W,
and the last is a craft band in the depth direction, which isintended to be used for the vertical side D (Fig. 4 bottom).
The number of wicks wV, wW, and wD of each craft band can beset. After the bottom is braided, the user bends these craft bands
and then braids the side. Let wH be the number of wicks in thehorizontal craft band on side H. We set wV=8, wW=6, wD = 6, wH =6, width = 150 (mm), depth = 100 (mm), height = 80 (mm).

Figure 5: Parameters that can be set for a cylindrical shape.

3RESULTSFig. 6 shows shapes designed by users using our system. Theusers were able to design these results in about 5 to 10 minutes(Fig. 6 top). In the user study, it was found that users typically
input the size to be created and then examine the color scheme in
the rectangular parallelepiped shape. In contrast, in the case of acylindrical shape, it turned out that users often perform operations
to adjust the height and width while observing the balance of theoutline in order to obtain the desired results. Fig. 6 bottom shows
sample works that were actually created by users using our system.

Figure 4: Parameters that can be set in a rectangularparallelepiped shape.

2.2(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Cylindrical Shape Design

In the cylindrical shape, radius and height can be input as shownin Fig. 5. These two numbers can be changed interactively. The
number of wicks wB of the helical craft band on the bottom
surface, and side spiral craft band wS can be changed as a moredetailed control. We set the initial setting to radius = 50 (mm),height = 80 (mm), wB = 2, wS = 6, respectively. For spiral shape
braiding, the number of lateral longitudinal craft bands needs tobe an odd number. In addition, it should be noted that when the wB
value of the core of the spiral shape craft band braiding on thebottom side is set too large, the curvature becomes too high andcannot be bent, so 1 ≤ wB ≤ 3. These restrictions are included in
the system, and the user can change the parameters withoutworrying about exceeding them. Furthermore, it is possible to add
widening section (Fig. 6 (a, b)) and narrowing section (Fig. 6 (b,c)). The user can add some parts such as eyes, ears (Fig. 6(e)).

(e)

Figure 6: Results of designing with our system.

REFERENCES[1] Y. Tao, G. Wang, C. Zhang, N. Lu, X. Zhang, C. Yao, and F. Ying. 2017.
WeaveMesh: A Low-Fidelity and Low-Cost Prototyping Approach for 3D
Models Created by Flexible Assembly. In Proc. of the 2017 CHI Conference on
Human Factors in Computing Systems. 509-518.
[2] M. Takezawa, T. Imai, K. Shida, and T. Maekawa. 2016. Fabrication offreeform objects by principal strips. ACM Transactions on Computer Graphics,
35(6):225.