Autodesk European Automotive Days 2008

The 2008 Autodesk European Automotive Days conference was held last week in Munich, bringing together 200 automotive design and visualization experts. Autodesk presented their strategy and vision for industrial design, with an emphasis on 'digital prototyping', where even at the concept stage the digital model is treated not just as a set of surfaces, but is integrated within the engineering process as as a functional digital prototype, with the aim to eventually replace physical models entirely. There was also a recognition that traditional techniques continue to have an important place alongside digital workflows, as the workflows and technologies continue to evolve.

Andreas Fischer, manager of Design Visualization at Daimler, ran through range of visualization techniques being used at the Daimler studios, demonstrating the latest quality improvements, the range of environments and presentations styles available to suit the needs of the Daimler design and marketing teams, and recent developments such as image-based lighting, and real-time ray-tracing bringing self-shadowing and local reflections. Interactive real-time ray tracing will be available in Autodesk Showcase from November.

Thomas Sahlin, General Motors Europe Design Manager Math Surface Development, explained the design process for the new Opel Insignia. The insignia was the first car at GME to be developed using Alias AutoStudio right through the A-Class surface development. Thomas gave an overview of the project timeline, and explained the key surface construction strategies and evaluation tools employed on the project.

Professor Lutz Fuegener from Pforzheim University gave an overview of the Transportation Design Masters and Bachelor courses. He explained how training in digital modelling and visualization is integral to the Bachelor and Masters courses, fitting in with each stage of their projects, some of which require fully digital presentations. He also stressed the importance of sketching as 'an essential element of the thinking process' and demonstrated some of the techniques used at the school such as using a three-quarter key sketch within the AliasStudio perspective window with a fixed viewpoint, as a basis for digital modelling.

On the second day of the conference there were workshops covering transportation design concept modeling, high-end visualization, technical surfacing and digital prototyping. In the concept modeling workshop, there were some hints of future workflows, including a system for sketching in Alias Studio where sketch lines are converted to geometry and can be fine-tuned using repeated strokes just as on a paper sketch, or 'tugged around' using gesture strokes. Another 'work-in-progress' tool showed a system for sketching 3D curves in a perspective window, which again were smoothed and converted to geometry curves. For those designers who find digital modeling still far too technical, these future tools may give a more natural way for car designers to sketch a model into being using a pen, without having to deal with a mouse and CVs.

Autodesk Design Consultant Michal Jelinek gave an overview of the range of 2D and 3D tools available to designers, and demonstrated modelling a "complete car in 15 minutes", showing his technique for rapidly blocking in a model over a side-view concept sketch, and applying the sketch to the model, as a method for quick presentation. He also demonstrated Autodesk's new Mudbox application, which builds on tools previously used in character animation to allow industrial designers to sculpt a model intuitively using digital sketch techniques to shape a virtual clay model.

By Brett Patterson