Dynamic 3D-Sketching - A design tool for urban and architectural design

Sketching by hand is without doubt – alongside building models – the most common tool that architects employ when designing. A disadvantage of the sketch, however, is the fact that whatever the sketch portrays (even if it is a perspective drawing), it is a purely two-dimensional planar representation of a three-dimensional product: the three-dimensional impression it communicates is an act of the viewer’s imagination. Digital modeling tools on the other hand sup-port the creation of three-dimensional content, but fall short in their ease of handling: their complexity and potentially un-intuitive opera-tion hinders rather than supports the design process. Taking this dis-crepancy as its starting point, the research project outlined here details the development and prototypical implementation of a dynamic 3D-sketching tool. The core idea of the project is to create a seamless connection between a perspective hand-sketch and a digital 3D-model in order to benefit from the advantages of hand sketching as a design tool, while also being able to the use the 3D model. The prototype allows the designer to work as usual, visualizing his thoughts using perspective sketches. While the user sketches on a touchscreen surface, the drawing is automatically interpreted and converted potentially into a system of three-dimensional lines, surfaces and volumes in real-time.     «

Sketching by hand is without doubt – alongside building models – the most common tool that architects employ when designing. A disadvantage of the sketch, however, is the fact that whatever the sketch portrays (even if it is a perspective drawing), it is a purely two-dimensional planar representation of a three-dimensional product: the three-dimensional impression it communicates is an act of the viewer’s imagination. Digital modeling tools on the other hand sup-port the creation of three-dimens...     »