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DESIGN 39
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Existing Approaches & Limitations scan real items into their designs, and RoMA interleaved AR
Our work draws on several strands of prior research: VR and design with robotic 3D printing so that geometry sketched in
augmented reality support for assembly and disassembly, AR is fabricated in situ.
VR-based design tools and digital fabrication, XR-enabled Closest to our setting, XR-penter supports the material-
in-situ fabrication, augmented tools and virtual environments aware, in-situ design of scrap-wood assemblies by creating
for physical DIY, and mixed reality for prototype validation. virtual twins of physical offcuts and generating cutting plans

Numerous studies have investigated VR-based training and under material and spatial constraints, while Augmented
AR-based support systems for assembly and disassembly Carpentry overlays computer-vision tool-path guidance onto
tasks. These systems assume a predefined product and a fixed real workpieces for precise manual sawing, marking, and
assembly sequence, guiding the execution of that sequence drilling without dedicated CNC machinery.
rather than letting users design an artifact of their own. DIY, These systems couple design and making, but each
by contrast, couples open-ended design with physical making. depends on specialised hardware, a specific material regime,
The distinction is important: training systems teach users or a predetermined operation, rather than supporting free-form
how to perform a known task correctly, whereas DIY tools VR design that a user reproduces with ordinary tools.
must support exploration, iteration, and creative decision- Several studies support physical DIY through augmented

making without a predetermined outcome. tools and AR. Schoop et al. attached sensors and displays
A large body of work explores designing three-dimensional to commercial hand tools such as drills, saws, and routers to
content directly in immersive environments. VRSketchIn provide in-situ guidance and to sequence instructions across
explored the design space of pen-and-tablet 3D sketching an entire project, and Pinheiro et al. developed WebXR-based
in VR, VR-Doh enabled hands-on, clay-like sculpting through AR tutorials that overlay component placement and assembly
physics-based deformation driven by hand gestures, and steps for DIY furniture in place of paper manuals. These
Kukreja et al. compared several VR CAD modelling tools guide the user's hands, but the artifact to be built is largely

across performance metrics to clarify which design stages given in advance.
each best supports. Others explore fabrication within virtual environments: Arisandi
Vlah et al. showed that VR modelling supports the et al. developed hand-tool-shaped input devices for virtual
embodiment design phase by enabling rapid creation of handcrafting that users found more intuitive than conventional
complex freeform geometries, though it still lacks the precision 3D software, Lee applied VR to vocational furniture-making
of conventional CAD. training and reported reductions in cost, space, and risk,
In parallel, personal-fabrication research seeks to make
physical making accessible to non-experts; FreeD, for example,
is a hand-held digital milling device that follows a digital model Krakenimages.com

while preserving the freedom of the user's hand. These tools
are expressive, but they largely stop at the boundary of the
virtual environment and do not address how the designed
artifact can be reproduced through physical DIY.
Another strand situates the design act in the physical
world through XR. MixFab offered a gesture-based mixed-
reality environment in which non-experts design objects and