DTV-CNN: Neural network based on depth and thickness views for efficient 3D shape classification

Fast and effective algorithms for deep learning on 3D shapes are keys to innovate mechanical and electronic engineering design workflow. In this paper, an efficient 3D shape to 2D images projection algorithm and a shallow 2.5D convolutional neural network architecture is proposed. A smaller convolutional neural network (CNN) model is achieved by information enrichment at the preprocessing stage, i.e. 3D geometry is compressed into 2D “thickness view” and “depth view”. Fusing the depth view and thickness view (DTV) from the same projection view into a dual-channel grayscale image, can improve information locality for geometry and topology feature extraction. This approach bridges the gap between mature image deep learning technologies to the applications of 3D shape. Enhanced by several essential scalar geometry properties and only 3 projection views, a mixed CNN and multiple linear parameter (MLP) neural network model achives a validation accuracy of 92 % for ModelNet10 mesh-based dataset, while the training time is one order of magnitude less than the original multi-view CNN approach. This study also creates new 3D shape datasets from 2 open source CAD projects. Higher validation accuracy is obtained for realistic CAD datasets, i.e. 97 % for FreeCAD's mechanical part library and 95 % for KiCAD electronic part library. The training cost reduces to tens of minutes on a laptop CPU, given the smaller input data size and shallow neural network design. It is expected that this approach can be adapted for other machine learning scenarios involved in CAD geometry.