Operating modes in actual versus virtual paper-and-pencil design scenarios

Conceptual design remains "unplugged" from other computer-aided design tasks. Engineers and designers continue to favor pencil and paper over computerized sketching tools. It has been suggested that one reason for this is the bewilderingly large range of options available to users of CAD tools. The simplicity of pencil and paper, it was argued, is a virtue, not a drawback. In this paper, we show that, in the hands of a skilled user, a pencil is a complex tool in itself, capable of several different modes of operation. We illustrate this versatility with examples from the field of mechanical engineering. To be competitive, computer-aided sketching tools must support the various operating modes which pencil and paper allows and skilled design engineers habitually use. We discuss to what extent this is already the case, and what further steps can be made towards this goal. Author Keywords Engineering design. Conceptual design. Sketch-based modeling. Input modes.

[1]  James A. Landay,et al.  Sketching Interfaces: Toward More Human Interface Design , 2001, Computer.

[2]  Fumihiko Kimura,et al.  Using handwriting action to construct models of engineering objects , 1982, Computer.

[3]  Jason Hong,et al.  Sketch Recognizers from the End-User's, the Designer's, and the Programmer's Perspective , 2002 .

[4]  Donald D. Hoffman.  Visual Intelligence: How We Create What We See , 1998 .

[5]  Gershon Elber,et al.  Sketching as a solid modeling tool , 1995, SMA '95.

[6]  Manuel Contero,et al.  A survey on geometrical reconstruction as a core technology to sketch-based modeling , 2005, Comput. Graph..

[7]  Takahiko Kawatani.  Handwritten Kanji recognition using combined complementary classifiers in a cascade arrangement , 1999, Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition. ICDAR '99 (Cat. No.PR00318).

[8]  Mark D. Gross,et al.  Recognizing and interpreting diagrams in design , 1994, AVI '94.

[9]  Joseph J. LaViola,et al.  MathPad2: a system for the creation and exploration of mathematical sketches , 2004, SIGGRAPH 2004.

[10]  John Abeysekera,et al.  Understanding small graphical symbols: a cross-cultural study , 2001 .

[11]  Manuel Contero,et al.  Computer-aided sketching as a tool to promote innovation in the new product development process , 2009, Comput. Ind..

[12]  Manuel Contero,et al.  Smart Sketch System for 3D Reconstruction Based Modeling , 2003, Smart Graphics.

[13]  Christopher F. Herot.  Graphical input through machine recognition of sketches , 1976, SIGGRAPH '76.

[14]  Manuel Contero,et al.  A New Sketch-Based Computer Aided Engineering Pre-Processor , 2008 .

[15]  Joseph J. LaViola,et al.  MathPad2: a system for the creation and exploration of mathematical sketches , 2004, ACM Trans. Graph..

[16]  Robert W. Rieber,et al.  Cross-Cultural Comparisons on Psychosemantics of Icons and Graphics , 1990 .

[17]  Beryl Plimmer,et al.  Computer-Aided Sketching to Capture Preliminary Design , 2002, AUIC.

[18]  Gary R. Bertoline,et al.  Technical Graphics Communication , 2002 .

[19]  Day Chyi Ku,et al.  Interpretation of Overtracing Freehand Sketching for Geometric Shapes , 2006 .

[20]  Philip J. Farrugia,et al.  A profile-driven sketching interface for pen-and-paper sketches , 2008 .

[21]  Ellen Yi-Luen Do,et al.  Ambiguous intentions: a paper-like interface for creative design , 1996, UIST '96.

[22]  Manuel Contero,et al.  A study of usability of sketching tools aimed at supporting prescriptive sketches , 2006, SBM'06.

[23]  James A. Landay,et al.  Interactive sketching for the early stages of user interface design , 1995, CHI '95.

[24]  Ellen Yi-Luen Do,et al.  Drawing as a Means to Design Reasoning , 1996 .

[25]  Nicholas Negroponte.  Sketching: A Computational Paradigm for Personalized Searching , 1975 .

[26]  Randall Davis,et al.  Interactive learning of structural shape descriptions from automatically generated near-miss examples , 2006, IUI '06.

[27]  PlimmerBeryl,et al.  Computer-aided sketching to capture preliminary design , 2002 .

[28]  Randall Davis,et al.  Magic Paper: Sketch-Understanding Research , 2007, Computer.

[29]  Alasdair Turner,et al.  Sketching space , 2000, Comput. Graph..

[30]  Christopher F. Herot.  Sketch recognition for computer-aided design , 1976, UODIGS '76.

[31]  Donald D. Hoffman,et al.  Visual Intelligence: How We Create What We See , 1998 .

[32]  David K. Wright,et al.  A study of sketching behaviour to support free-form surface modelling from on-line sketching , 2004 .

[33]  Joseph J. LaViola,et al.  An initial evaluation of MathPad2: A tool for creating dynamic mathematical illustrations , 2007, Comput. Graph..

[34]  Randall Davis,et al.  Automatically Transforming Symbolic Shape Descriptions for Use in Sketch Recognition , 2004, AAAI.

[35]  Tracy Anne Hammond,et al.  LADDER: a language to describe drawing, display, and editing in sketch recognition , 2003, IJCAI.

[36]  Randall Davis,et al.  Sketch recognition in interspersed drawings using time-based graphical models , 2008, Comput. Graph..

[37]  James A. Landay,et al.  SILK: sketching interfaces like krazy , 1996, CHI Conference Companion.