Patent ID: 8300062

Claim:
A system for modeling based upon a sketch, comprising; (a) a computer; (b) a database linked to the computer, said database being operable to store the following as one or more images: one or more stored images; at least one image of previously used geometry; and at least one previous drawing selected by a user and stored as an image of previously used geometry; and (c) a computer application linked to the computer, the computer application being operable to provide a sketching application, wherein: (i) the sketching application is operable to present to a user a suggestive modeling interface, the suggestive modeling interface being operable to: (A) infer characteristics of a drawing and characteristics of a currently drawn curve as inferred characteristics, said inferred characteristics including intersections and straightness of the drawing or currently drawn curve, and said suggestive modeling interface further being operable to provide suggestions of subsequent possible geometry that is similar geometry that can be used in the drawing without the need to draw the geometry, said suggestions being based upon the inferred characteristics; and (B) assist the user in producing a drawing based on: sketching input from the user; and one or more aspects of one or more images obtained from the database; and (ii) the suggestive modeling interface includes or is linked to a matching operator for: (A) accessing one or more images from the database dynamically based on one or more of the following: one or more inferred characteristics to determine subsequent possible geometry based on a current state of the drawing or a currently drawn curve; similar geometry based on the current state of the drawing or the currently drawn curve; and a curve signature based on the current state of the drawing or the currently drawn curve; and (B) accessing one or more images from the database iteratively in accordance with the current state of the drawing or the currently drawn curve, said accessed one or more images representing one or more of the following: exact matches, inferred subsequent possible geometry, or substantially similar matches to the current state of the drawing; and augmenting basic suggestions of similar geometry within more complex suggestions of similar geometry; (iii) the suggestive modeling interface is operable to permit a user to select one or more of the images accessed from the database as suggestions of images of similar geometry and thereby integrate the one or more suggestion images into the drawing; and (iv) the sketching application being operable to: (A) to continuously present to the user one or more images from the database based on similar geometry to a current state of the drawing including any currently drawn curve, in accordance with the suggestive modeling interface as the user continues drawing; and (B) to permit the user to select one or more drawings and to store said selected one or more drawings to the database to be used as images of previously used geometry by the suggestive modeling interface.