Y-AR: A Mixed Reality CAD Tool for 3D Wire Bending

Wire bending is a technique used in manufacturing to mass-produce items such as clips, mounts, and braces. Recent advances in programmable wire bending have made this process increasingly accessible for custom fabrication. However, CNC wire benders are controlled using Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software, without design tools, making custom designs challenging to produce. We present Y-AR, a Computer Aided Design (CAD) interface for 3D wire bending. Y-AR uses mixed reality to let designers create clips, mounts, and braces to physically connect objects to their surrounding environment. The interface incorporates springs as design primitives which (1) apply forces to hold objects, and (2) counter-act dimensional inaccuracies inherently caused by mid-air modeling and measurement errors in AR. Springs are a natural design element when working with metal wire-bending given its specific material properties. We demonstrate workflows to design and fabricate a range of mechanisms in Y-AR as well as structures made using free-hand design tools. We found that combining gesture-based interaction with fabrication-aware design principles allowed novice users to create functional wire connectors, even when using imprecise XR-based input. In our usability evaluation, all 12 participants successfully designed and fabricated a functional bottle holder using Y-AR.