To protect the copyright of 3D model data

a scheme of visible watermark for 3D mesh models that is perceptible in the 3D view and the wireframe view is proposed. A new visible watermarking algorithm for 3D triangle meshes is established as well. First

the region to embed is projected onto the 2D plane. Then

the watermark in vector format is embedded into the region. Finally

the region is projected onto the original meshes. The core process of this approach is to separate the triangles into two parts. One part is in the watermark

and the other part is outside the watermark. The Sutherland-Hodgeman algorithm for clipping polygons is altered and used in the embedding. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm

experiments are conducted with 3D model data. The algorithm keeps the visual characteristics of the original model well

and the watermark is plainly visible in both views. The increment of the size of the embedded data is about 10 percent. The proposed approach is an effective way to embed watermark into triangle meshes and can be used in the copyright protection of 3D mesh models.