In this study, we propose a new method for indexing and retrieval of 3D models in large databases based on binary images extracted from the 3D object called "level cut" LC. These cuts are obtained by the intersection of the set of the plans with the 3D object. A set of equidistant parallel plans generates by the intersection with the 3D object a set of cuts that used to indexing the 3D model. We are based on these cuts to describe the 3D object by using the vectors descriptors based on these cuts. To validate our descriptor we extract a test database from the NTU base. The robustness of our descriptor is well demonstrated by the comparison with the two will known descriptors, the 3D Zernike descriptor and the 3D invariant moment's descriptor. The topological problem of the external surfaces that representing the 3D object has been confronted, that shows the superiority of the cut method, because it is keeping the external surfaces details of the 3D object during the cutting step.Keywords: Characteristics Level Cut, Vector Descriptor, 3D Shape Indexing and Retrieval, X-means Algorithm, Similarity Measuring INTROCUCTIONRecently, the technological development of 3D modeling tools is forever exploited. Many 3D models are now downloadable for free thanks to the internet, as well as the large databases of 3D models have become available in the market. The retrieval of these models in databases demands sophisticated methods for a rapid and effective response.Among the indexation approaches of 3D models, we find the 2D/3D approach (Haris et al., 2014;Jain and Singh, 2013;Li and Johan, 2013;Petre et al., 2010) which is based on a set of images (the characteristic views, images of depths, the slices...). The importance of this approach is extract for each image a descriptor vector for construct a set of vectors descriptors associated with the object to index. The similarity measure between two 3D objects then returns to calculate the distance between the two sets of descriptors representing them. The extraction of information of the 3D object in a robust and efficient way Recently, the technological development of 3D has become a real challenge. The proposed method permits to deal with this problem. Given a 3D object, the method starts by a normalization step of the processed object using the CPCA technique. Then, we extract a set of cuts based on our cutting method. This set of cuts (binary images) will be indexed by a 2D image descriptor to construct the descriptor vector associated to the 3D model, using the Hausdorff distance to calculate the distance between the vectors descriptors which allows us to measure the similarity between the 3D objects.The proposed descriptor shows the robustness in terms of response to the query provided by the user and the comparative study between the proposed descriptor and two other descriptors well known of the 3D/3D approach, the 3D Zernike moments and 3D invariant moments shows considerable results.