You’re working on an automotive design project. What are the best resources to help you succeed?

Generally speaking, photoshop and procreate are often the more popular choices for sketching and 2D ideation. They allow one to develop fast ideas with great flexibility in custom brushes and effects. With regards to automotive design, 3D tools such as Autodesk Alias offer a one stop shop for NURBs, SubD as well as precise technical tools for surface analysis. Blender is a very powerful modelling, animation and visualisation design tool and offers some benefits which alias isn’t able to at this moment in time. Both work very well together for different parts of the job.

On an automotive design project, the biggest factor to be successful is ensuring good cross functional communication and support. While the desigh engineer may be responsible for the design, the timelines are maintined by project managers, the testing by development teams, the manufacturing by manufacturing teams, the purchasing of components by purchasing and sales team to get the costs right to sell your design. It is vital to involve all cross functional members in this porcess and to ensure all requirements are being met for a successful project. Apart from CAD tool, and PLM tools to make designs available to everyone, effective communication tools such as slack & teams play a huge role in the success of automotive design projects.

As an automotive designer, the success of a design hinges on what level of comfort do you share with any CAD software. Put it this way, Computer languages are different, but the algorithm to solve any issue never changes. Many a times you'd be straight in the face of a designing challenge that particularly has no solution, so you'll have to build yourself one using the tools at your disposal. This is only possible when the you know the limitations and advantages these tools and software possess. My preference is SolidWorks for surface modeling, spaceframes, CNC paneling, evaluations and analysis. It has a user friendly CAD interface, huge design freedom and also the advantage of analysis such as CFD and Stress, all in a single place.

A graphic tablet such as a Wacom is near essential for anyone wanting to sketch digitally. VR headsets work for some and not so much for others, it’s becoming more popular in design studios but isn’t a replacement for clay, though certainly for 1:1 visualisation it’s great. Especially when you have an international team that can’t always be in one place at the same time to review a 3D model.

Learning car design from videos is a great help however I’ve found that 1:1 sessions on a regular basis offers personalised learning, this supplemented by video content helps to bring out the best in students.

Online communities especially on LinkedIn are really helpful. It enables one to feel closer to people in the industry gaining useful insights and knowledge from industry professionals. Not to mention gain important connections and build working relationships with potential collaborators.

AutoDesign magazine is a great publication which has been running for many years. It’s a great way to start a paperback collection for your home office and for when you might want to look back at some amazing sketches from global designers. There are also many books for learning car design such as “how to design cars like a pro “ and H point which offers an insight into vehicle packaging.

Exposure to New Technologies and Innovations: Events often showcase the latest innovations, technologies, and best practices. Attendees can discover new tools and processes that can be implemented in their own projects or business strategies. Insights into Industry Trends: Keynote speeches, panel discussions and case studies presented at events can offer valuable insights into future trends and market directions, helping attendees to strategize accordingly.

As a grad student, I have been a part of several automotive competitions in the Solar EV segment (undergrad) and currently a member of SAE and Solar EV project. In my opinion, these competitions and projects are true grounds for exposure. Not only do you get insights on the latest technology, you also get to experience the how team functions, how people get around challenges, networking with peers of the same mindset and experience design solutions under the same guidelines. It helps you understand the current trends, research, and skill sets available and sheds light on areas you excel and/or need to improve.

When I was involved in a project similar to developing an offroad buggy, which eventually got the top spot for best design, I started by gathering information online and from free resources like vlogs, videos, and tutorials. Next, I delved into labs, company research, and industry visits, seeking advice from experts through interviews. After analysis, I began crafting my model and it involved multiple iterations and careful examination of rule books. Then came prototyping, where our team created physical 3D models to verify every component. Finally, we reached the stage of final development and testing and every day we thought that extra iteration might have been beneficial. This process underscores the importance of continuous improvement.

Here is something I find particularly interesting, The more you broaden your horizons into multiple disciplines, the more you can innovate. I find myself engaged on youtube for hours when I find the time to learn a new design innovation from the past or the present and go through its working principle. If it fascinates you, dive deeper. Here is an example: while studying viscous flows, I stumbled upon a NASA project lost to time called the oblique wing design which proves that non-symmetric wings are more aerodynamically efficient than symmetric designs at supersonic speeds. This has been confirmed by Lockheed Martin and Boeing engineers as well. Fascinating! although it was a project for aircrafts, can it be translated to cars?

IA esta tomando su forma mas y mas, aunque un dise?o, viene del mente briante del ser humano. Tambien podemos recrear dise?os a partir de la naturaleza. Pero en terminos técnico tenemos que sobre todo asiendo pruebas para ver el aspecto realista de un projecto. Donde muchos factores dependen del exito. Marketing, tendencia, normativas son algunos aspectos que hay que tomar en cuenta