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material waste and development time. Extending the system with the Meta Quest's passthrough
The intuitive, gesture-based interaction in VR may be capability could let users overlay a virtual object directly onto
particularly suitable for early-stage design exploration where physical space while refining a design, and supporting multiple
conventional CAD tools are too rigid or time-consuming. simultaneous users could enable collaborative DIY between
In educational settings, the system could lower the barrier geographically distant users. Both are promising directions
to entry for students learning furniture design by allowing them for future work.

to iterate rapidly without consuming materials or requiring This study has several limitations that should be
access to fully equipped workshops. acknowledged. The cutting and placement operations are
The system's blueprint export function also supports performed directly based on the raw positional data of the
remote collaboration. A designer in one location could create VR controller manipulated by the user.
a furniture design in VR, export the blueprint, and share it Consequently, it can be difficult to perform highly precise
with a fabricator or client elsewhere. This workflow reduces operations, such as cutting parallel to a specific surface or
the need for physical samples to be shipped and enables placing components at fixed intervals from an edge. These
iterative design refinement across distances. limitations could be addressed in future work by providing
With the addition of multi-user VR capabilities—identified visual cutting guides, displaying virtual measuring tools, or

as future work—remote collaborative design could become introducing user interfaces designed for precise manipulation.
even more seamless, allowing multiple users to work on the The current system also assumes that any virtual components
same virtual design simultaneously from different locations. can be freely assembled. In practical DIY scenarios, however,
From a sustainability perspective, the ability to design and the assembly method must be carefully determined according
cost furniture virtually before cutting wood reduces material to factors such as the type, size, and placement of screws or
waste from trial-and-error failures. This is particularly valuable other fasteners. Developing methods to automatically determine
for small-scale producers and DIY enthusiasts who may lack suitable assembly configurations based on these constraints

the resources to absorb material losses. remains an important direction for future work.
The system also supports the use of custom-cut ordering Furthermore, in this study, the system was used exclusively
services, which can optimise material utilisation and reduce by one of the authors, and evaluating its usability and user
offcut waste compared to buying standard-sized boards. By experience with general users was beyond the scope of this
enabling users to design precisely and order only the exact work.
parts they need, the system contributes to more efficient use Therefore, conducting user studies to assess the usability
of wood resources.
More broadly, these findings suggest two directions
for improving the system. Refining the cutting and joining www.magnific.com

interactions to reduce misoperation—for example, by adding
visual or haptic cutting feedback and an explicit indication of
the current joining target—would enhance the user experience
and reduce frustration.
Enriching the exported blueprint with additional positional
information needed for higher-fidelity physical reproduction
would further increase the system's practical utility.