A visibility algorithm for converting 3D meshes into editable 2D vector graphics

Artists often need to import and embellish 3D models coming from CAD-CAM into 2D vector graphics software to produce, e.g., brochures or manuals. Current automatic solutions tend to result, at best, in a 2D triangle soup and artists often have to trace over 3D renderings. We describe a method to convert 3D models into 2D layered vector illustrations that respect visibility and facilitate further editing. Our core contribution is a visibility method that can partition a mesh into large components that can be layered according to visibility. Because self-occluding objects and objects forming occlusion cycles cannot be represented by layers without being cut, we introduce a new cut algorithm that uses a graph representation of the mesh and curvature-aware geodesic distances.

@Article { EPD09,
  author       = "Eisemann, Elmar and Paris, Sylvain and Durand, Fredo",
  title        = "A visibility algorithm for converting 3D meshes into editable 2D vector graphics",
  journal      = "ACM Trans. Graph. (Proc. of SIGGRAPH)",
  volume       = "28",
  pages        = "83:1--83:8",
  month        = "July",
  year         = "2009",
  keywords     = "NPR, geometry processing, vector graphics, visibility",
  url          = "http://graphics.tudelft.nl/Publications-new/2009/EPD09"
}