Towards 'sketch three-dimensional prototyping' for aiding conceptual form design

Abstract

Despite the progress and sophistication of commercially available CAD tools, designers in industry continue to resort to traditional 'paper-based' sketching for the rapid exploration of component form solution concepts. The research reported in this paper concerns the ongoing development of an approach framework through which a physical 3-D prototype can be rapidly generated from a 2-D paper-based, plan sketch, of a prismatic component. The goal of this approach is to retain the important characteristics of freehand sketching i.e. pencil and paper, whilst at the same time exploit the benefits of rapid prototyping technology for swiftly generating physical 3D-prototypes of 'component sketches'. The aim of this paper is to disclose the concept and preliminary evaluation results of the Framework for Early 'Form Design' Rapid Prototyping upon which this physical prototyping approach is based.