Modeling across Realities (MAR): Extending Desktop 3D Modeling with Augmented Reality

Three-dimensional modeling (3D Modeling) is an essential part of creating digital content across various industries. However, most industry-standard tools rely on conventional desktop setups with 2D screens. One possible solution is to use Augmented Reality (AR), which allows users to perceive 3D shapes in a body-centric space better, but this increased spatial understanding comes at the cost of precision. To solve this problem, we present the MAR (Modeling Across Realities) system, a cross-reality 3D modeling system that combines the precision of conventional desktop-based 3D modeling with immersive AR visualization and interaction. We systematically evaluated MAR by asking 20 participants to model an abstract shape and an everyday object. Our results show that MAR outperformed desktop-based 3D modeling with lower workload, higher usability, and user preference without compromising the model quality in the abstract shape task, and improving model quality in the everyday-object task. These outcomes indicate that MAR is a promising cross-reality approach with the potential to inform the design of future 3D modeling systems.