Open Source CDFAM with Aaron Porterfield
Sharing Tools, Shaping Methods: A Personal Approach to Open Source Design
Aaron Porterfield is a freelance industrial designer whose work spans prosthetics, helmets, footwear, and performance gear—projects where customization, fit, and fabrication all matter.
He’s also the creator of Crystallon, an open-source lattice design plugin for Rhino and Grasshopper, developed out of necessity while working on production-ready additive projects.
His presentation at CDFAM Berlin in 2024 was easily one of the most entertaining, but unfortunately the recording was lost in translation so we invited him back to CDFAM Amsterdam 2025, where Aaron will share his ongoing efforts to expand access to computational tools by building and releasing workflows that help others navigate the same challenges he faces in practice.
1.What will you be sharing at CDFAM Amsterdam this year, and how does it build on your open source work in computational design?
This year I want to talk more about the free / affordable / open source tools I use in my design workflows and how I also try to share the tools and workflows I have made, open source. As a freelance designer, I’ve never had the budget to afford much “professional” software, so I have always done it the hard way. I will have a need for a specific thing, and I take a voyage across the internet in search for something free or affordable that can do it.
Most of the time, I find that someone else had the same need, wrote software, and shared it on github or in a forum. There are some really nice, open source tools out there and very smart people that like to share.
The open source community, and “knowledge sharing” community shaped me, not only growing up, but in my professional career as well. I think this is why I enjoy teaching, and sharing the things I have made with the world.
2. Your previous CDFAM presentation was unfortunately lost in translation, —what amazing insights, workflows, or design philosophies do you think the world missed out on? Feel free to reconstruct reality here.
In Berlin, where it unfortunately wasn’t recorded, I presented ground breaking discoveries in computation and design that will change the world forever.
I also spoke about my childhood and how my parents never bought me videogames.
But it was mostly about my unintentional transition from industrial designer to computational designer and somehow a (kind of?) plugin developer. I shared some professional work, but more of my own personal “research” projects.
I think the audience enjoyed my weird personal projects more than my real work. If there was any takeaway, for anyone who missed it, it would be to keep experimenting and keep sharing.
3. Crystallon has become a go-to lattice generation plugin for Rhino users. What’s the latest with Crystallon, and what other tools have you been developing or exploring in your recent work?
Crystallon is a neglected child most of the time. The middle child between work and fun.
I have been talking about making a V3 for a few years already, but it’s difficult developing open source software with no contributors (but how many users?).
How Crystallon actually came to be was through necessity. It was a toolkit I created for myself to complete projects and it continues to be that as well. So there has actually been a lot of development over the last few years, creating tools I need for the work I do. The latest would be a lot of work involving meshing (in triangles we trust). Creating interchangeable unit cells based on cubes, prisms, and tetrahedrons. Some deeper dives into input decks for simulation and open source solvers. Toolpaths for extrusion.
The list is much longer and there are many small tools I have made that have been super helpful for my work. I think I am going to start publishing them as individual tools as I go, instead of making full versions of Crystallon. CDFAM Amsterdam attendees will get first access!
4. Your path from industrial design into computational design and tool development is a unique one. What’s been the most transformative part of that shift for you personally and/or professionally?
It was an unintentional path, but I think it was the right one. I guess professionally would be shifting to freelancing full time and finding my own clients.
I feel lucky for the variety of projects I’ve been able to work on that I otherwise would have missed out on.
Personally, the most transformative shift was finding work in that “goldilocks zone”, where work both makes sense and feels good. I found that in prosthetics and orthotics. It’s a field that completely makes sense for additive, everything must be custom, there is a lot of possibilities to explore, and it is improving people’s lives.
It’s the feel good work that I don’t get tired of.
5. What did you enjoy most about your last experience at CDFAM (happy to have you back), and what are you hoping for this time around in Amsterdam?
The people! Everyone there was smarter than me and I enjoyed all the conversations. It was a great selection of presentations and good variety of backgrounds.
I made a lot of new friends.
In Amsterdam I’m hoping to sell Crystallon and retire.
To learn more about Aaron’s work, you can read the interview from last year, follow him on Linkedin and Instagram.
Even better, to meet him in person and others interested in exploring and sharing their approach to computational design at all scales, join us at CDFAM Amsterdam July 9-10 2025 for two days of presentations and networking.
