Freehand sketching is an important part of the conceptual design process, and the increasing number of recent sketching applications shows a developing awareness of this importance. We aim to provide an automated tool to turn engineers� freehand sketches into CAD models. This would allow engineers to spend their time more productively and to be more creative. One natural component of such a tool would be a process for identifying axially-aligned planes implied by a natural line drawing. We present an algorithm for identifying such planes. We illustrate its utility by presenting two uses: identifying planes of mirror symmetry in objects and constructing the hidden topology of objects.
['Peter Varley', 'Ralph Robert Martin', 'Hiromasa Suzuki']
Progress in Detection of Axis-Aligned Planes to Aid in Interpreting Line Drawings of Engineering Objects