Manipulation guide using contact constraints for construction of 3D composite objects

There is a well-known problem that it is very difficult to accurately make a 3D object move/rotate into the specific position/orientation in a virtual 3D space by the direct manipulation of a mouse device on a 2D computer display screen. To deal with this problem, the authors have already proposed an automatic 3D object layout method based on contact constraints. After automatically generating a 3D scene using this method, the user often wants to modify it manually. For this, the authors propose manipulation guide functionality based on contact constraints in this paper. The contact constraints of the 3D object layout method can also be useful for the construction of 3D composite objects. This paper also reports the applicability of the 3D object layout method and manipulation guide functionality to the construction of 3D composite objects.