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.

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