Software description

Lugworm is an open-source plugin for Grasshopper in Rhino 8 (Windows) that integrates the complete process chain for clay and cementitious 3D printing within a single parametric environment. Developed for robotic additive manufacturing at the IDAC Additive Manufacturing Lab (IAMLab), the plugin comprises seven component groups corresponding to the main workflow stages: Slice, Place, G-code, Robot, Analyze, Calibrate, and Print. Geometries can be sliced into planar or conical non-planar layers, positioned on the print bed, and converted into G-code for printers running RepRapFirmware (Duet), Marlin, or Klipper. Prior to printing, each job can be simulated using a digital model of the printer. Analysis components visualize overhangs, interlayer times, and relevant print statistics. For material and process calibration, a design-of-experiments toolbox supports the planning of experimental series, generation of standardized test specimens, fitting of response-surface models to measured data, and identification of process parameters that balance competing objectives using desirability functions and Pareto fronts. Printers equipped with Duet control boards can be operated directly from Grasshopper, including file management and live monitoring of the printing process (Figure 1). Lugworm is developed and tested using the 3D-printing system at the IAMLab. Documentation, a component reference, installation packages, and the source code are publicly available at https://jaspervoll.github.io/Lugworm/ and https://github.com/JasperVoll/Lugworm.