3D Mechanical Models Retrieval Based on Combined Histograms for Rapid Product Design

Shape Distribution (3DSD) and Radius Angle Histogram (RAH) are useful methods for retrieving 3D model in mechanical engineering. Through these methods have advantages such as fast speeds and simple operations, the retrieval precision are not very high enough. To improve the retrieval precision, a new method named combined histograms which integrates the advantages of 3DSD and RAH is proposed. This method makes use of the information both of shape and surface of the models to be retrieved. In the retrieval process, the shape histogram and the radius angle histogram of the retrieved model are first extracted. Then, the combined histograms of the model are established by integrating the shape histogram and the radius angle histogram. To validate the proposed method, an experiment is given. The experiment results show that the proposed method has higher retrieval precision than that of 3DSD and RAH and is suitable for mechanical model design.