FabCode: visual programming environment for digital fabrication

In this paper, we introduce FabCode, a visual programming environment using which one can create designs that can be manufactured using digital fabrication techniques like 3D printing and laser cutting. This project is primarily about making accessible and enhancing the kinds of "thinking" that the computational medium is capable of supporting and spreading. FabCode is situated in the context of design and engineering of objects, and is based on the premise that programming 3D models for personal fabrication would enable practice of computational thinking for the same. Children will learn as they work on personally meaningful projectsbuilding, describing, printing and playing with things, and debugging and discussing their processes and outcomes. It will be a childcentered, constructionist tool for FabLabs.