:orphan: ************ Introduction ************ .. role:: caption Digital fabrication is a design and manufacturing workflow where digital data directly controls a device like a 3D printer, a laser cutter or a :term:`CNC` (computer numerical control) milling machine, to form various part geometries. History ======= .. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_numerical_control The first machine that had the ability to be programmed and was used to manufacture a product was the **Jacquard loom**. It was invented in **1806** by Joseph Marie Jacquard, a French weaver and merchant. Possibly inspired by player pianos, instructions for textile patterns were coded in a sequence of punched cards. In a similar manner, perforated paper rolls were used to control an **automatic lathe** developed in **1948** by Frederick Cunningham at the Arma corporation. .. Developed in 1948, demonstrated in 1950 "[...] through punch-tape instructions [...]" – The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties, page 266 Adrian Holmberg & Goss-Dexter Driven by the demand of the evolving aircraft industry for high precision parts with complex outlines like airfoil profiles, the It's `history `_ reaches back (at least) as far as **1959**, when an ashtray was milled as part of the APT (Automatically Programmed Tool) project, developed by the Computer Applications Group within the Servomechanisms Laboratory at MIT. .. figure:: /_static/digital_fabrication/1959-apt_ashtray.jpeg :width: 200px :align: left APT II Ashtray (Source: `Computer History Museum `__) |clearfloats| Glossary ======== .. glossary:: CAD Computer-aided design CAM Computer-aided manufacturing CNC Computer numerical control NC Numerical control