Concept design CAD for the automotive industry

The car industry is very large, and the designs are usually evolutionary in character with much convergence of approaches and technology. Car stylists play a particular role in the concept stage of the design process. Key parts of their work have proved incompatible with computer-aided design (CAD) support, despite its advantages. The primary objective of the work described has been to devise techniques that provide effective CAD support for the stylists' concept design processes, without inhibiting the fluidity and richness of a sketch-based approach. Various methods for doing this have been developed and used by stylists and design students. The work on sketch mapping as a usable tool is described, and is contrasted with the more conventional direct modelling approach that is seen to have limitations. There is a brief description of work in progress on deriving forms directly from sketches. The extension of the resources available to support concept design through the use of non-concept scanning technology is described, and initial experiments illustrated. As a conclusion there is the outline proposal for a hybrid technique combining conventional sketches, sketch mapping, sketch modelling and non-contact scanning techniques.