Branching is a feature of distributed version control systems that facilitates the ``divide and conquer'' strategy present in complex and collaborative work domains. Branching has revolutionized modern software development and has the potential to similarly transform hardware product development via CAD (computer-aided design). Yet, contrasting with its status in software, branching as a feature of commercial CAD systems is in its infancy, and little research exists to investigate its use in the digital design and development of physical products. To address this knowledge gap, in this paper, we mine and analyze 719 user-generated posts from online CAD forums to qualitatively study designers' intentions for and preliminary use of branching in CAD. Our work contributes a taxonomy of CAD branching use cases, an identification of deficiencies of existing branching capabilities in CAD, and a discussion of the untapped potential of CAD branching to support a new paradigm of collaborative mechanical design. The insights gained from this study may help CAD tool developers address design shortcomings in CAD branching tools and assist CAD practitioners by raising their awareness of CAD branching to improve design efficiency and collaborative workflows in hardware development teams.

翻译：分支是分布式版本控制系统的一项特性，有助于在复杂且协作的工作领域中实施“分而治之”策略。分支技术彻底改变了现代软件开发，并有望通过计算机辅助设计（CAD）类似地改变硬件产品开发。然而，与在软件领域的地位形成对比的是，分支作为商业CAD系统的一项功能仍处于起步阶段，且关于其在实体产品数字化设计与开发中的应用研究甚少。为填补这一知识空白，本文挖掘并分析了来自在线CAD论坛的719篇用户帖子，通过质性研究探讨设计师使用CAD分支的意图与初步实践。本研究贡献了CAD分支用例的分类体系，指出现有CAD分支能力的不足，并探讨了CAD分支在支撑协作式机械设计新范式方面尚未被发掘的潜力。本研究的见解可帮助CAD工具开发者改进分支工具的设计缺陷，同时通过提升从业人员对CAD分支的认知，提高硬件开发团队的设计效率与协作工作流。