A user interface for customizing cane layouts in Virtual Glass

Abstract

Cane pulling is a technique used in glass blowing to build up intricate patterns which come out in the final piece. Virtual Glass was created to model the cane pulling process from start to finish. There are a variety of standard cane layout patterns, but in truth the full range of possibilities is limited only by the glassblower's skill and imagination. For this reason the previous Virtual Glass interface, which provided only templates, proved to be too restrictive for users. In this thesis I describe an alternative interface we have developed which frees users from the limitations of template patterns. I provide a side-by-side comparison of several previous cane designs replicated in the program with and without the use of this interface. I also detail several unimplemented features and describe the foreseeable challenges with adding them, as well as how they might integrate into the interface when they are included.