🏆 2011 Winter/Spring URP (Achievement Award)

YouCanSketch

KyoungHee Son

Sketching system to support mechanical engineers' concept development

In engineering concept generation, “graphical deliverables” are significant as a tool for information expression and communication. However, most engineers who are lack of drawing education cannot fully deliver their ideas through freehand drawing. On the other hand, CAD (Computer Aided Design) modeling is not a proper way to express ideas that are being changed and developed dynamically.

To overcome these problems, we observed and analyzed how mechanical engineering students express and communicate engineering concepts while working on their course work projects. Based on this analysis, we designed and implemented “YouCanSketch”, a sketching system which helps engineers, especially who are untrained in traditional sketching techniques, communicate visually in the concept generation process.

YouCanSketch is a digital sketching system which maximizes the merits of hand drawing without the burden of CAD works. This system allows engineers to modify and share drawings more easily. Moreover, it is easy for users to get used in an intuitive interface which has the motifs of real world objects like post-it sticky notes or clips. Some of ideas came out from this research can be used for more generalized sketching systems.