There is growing interest in developing tools with which novice users can create detailed 3D models of their own designs. The most popular approaches to this problem include sketch-based interfaces and part-composition systems. The sketch-based modeling systems provide natural interfaces for creating 3D models from 2D sketches, but are generally limited to creating simple geometric models. The part-composition systems provide tools for combining parts extracted from a database of 3D models, and thus can generate very detailed 3D models, but usually with much higher overhead and expertise required by the user for manipulating 3D geometry interactively. In this paper, we introduce a new modeling method that overcomes these limitations by combining both approaches – we introduce a modeling system for parts composition with a sketching interface. The system allows the user to find a part in a database and composite it into a model with a single sketch. This approach combines the benefits of both approaches – i.e., it allows creation of highly detailed models/scenes (as details come from parts in the database), while 2D sketched strokes provide all the information for part selection and composition (no 3D manipulation is required, in general). To enable this modeling method, we investigate an algorithm for 3D shape search with 2D sketch as a shape query and a part placement algorithm which automatically orients, translates, scales, and attaches a new part into a modeling scene by taking the user sketch as a hint. User experiences with our prototype system show that novice users can create interesting and detailed models with our system.

@inproceedings{Lee:2008:SSA,
   author = "Jeehyung Lee and Thomas Funkhouser",
   title = "Sketch-Based Search and Composition of {3D} Models",
   booktitle = "EUROGRAPHICS Workshop on Sketch-Based Interfaces and Modeling",
   year = "2008",
   month = jun
}