Line to form to line - transformations between 2D and 3D in design and documentation

Line sketches are ubiquitous in both the fields of design and documentation, because they are both quick and simple to produce and because they have a very high ´power to weight ratio´ in terms of the information that they convey against their complexity as data or visual objects. This paper describes two pieces of work which exploit the power and speed of line style presentation. The first uses line sketches as the basis for rapid production of three dimensional models as a starting point for the automotive design process. The second provides interactive presentation, in variable weight line form, of three dimensional computer models. Together they illustrate that line style representations of three dimensional objects have a use which is often ignored in the drive towards photo-realism that is apparent in the domain of three dimensional multimedia.