Synthesis of fabricable shape from partial specifications

The Rapid Manufacturing techniques that emerged from Rapid Prototyping techniques such as 3D printing or laser cutting allow to fabricate unique objects. However, the design of those objects with existing CAD software remain a difficult task: rapid prototyping processes impose constraints on the geometry of the model. This thesis presents a set of techniques that assist the user in the design of an object by taking into account the constraints of the fabrication process. To achieve this, the algorithm automatically performs part of the modelling process. The following problems have been tackled: First, I propose to improve the quality of 3D printed objects by minimizing defects that appear during the fabrication. The technique developed impacts only the algorithm that drives the printer. Then, I propose to help the user to take into account the fabrication constraints during the modelling process. My techniques rely on partial information about the shape that the user wants to fabricate like the 2D sketch of a mechanism or a parametric model of a furniture. The algorithm optimizes the initial shape to improve fabrication objectives(Wastage, etc.) Finally, in some cases, the user does not know how to operate dedicated software. In this case, I propose a synthesis technique of furniture from functionnal specification, e.g. loads that have to be supported in space