The Foresight Vehicle Programme - Towards Inclusion of the Styling Studio in Concurrent Development

A major activity in the development of a new car is the styling but this work has not been integrated into concurrent engineering methodologies. This paper describes ongoing work to increase the productivity and quality of styling and improving management and information flow by providing a means for r apid transformation from stylists' sketches to 3-D geometry. The result should be a less labor intensive way of generating 3-D computer m odels early in the styling process, allowing better feedback to stylists and their managers, and providing computer based geometry to engineers at a very early stage in the design lifecycle.