Hello everyone! I'm happy to share with you the design process of a Concept SUV car designed by CATIA Design China local team!

We started from 2D sketches, after that, we used the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform to do all the process: CATIA Natural Sketch for 3D sketching and 3D ideation, CATIA Imagine & Shape as the conceptual modeling tool, CATIA ICEM for detailed modeling & Class-A surfacing, and CATIA Live Rendering helped us to do validation anytime and output high-quality renderings. The unified solution of CATIA Creative Design is really cool which inspired us a lot to finish the whole project, you can find the details of this design project.

1. Design process

There are 4 stages for the Concept SUV design project from 2D sketching:

Ideation - Concept - Refinement - Design Validation

2.Ideation

In the first stage, our designer Li Yimeng did a lot of 2D sketches and 2D renderings, try to express the styling in 3D through 2D:

Then we switch to 3DEXPERIENCE Platform, drag & drop the side view inside, to make sure the car has right size and proportion (picture 1), then we use Natural Sketch to quick sketch the main styling curves and details of the car.

With the 3D sketching of this car, we got better understanding of the styling features in a real 3D world, and we also did few small modifications according to the performance in 3D: because you know, there is always difference between 2D and 3D.

Then the step goes to be discussion.

Because our team members did not stay all together in the same office, we use 3DEXPERIENCE platform to chat and communicate and share screen to do co-review, we get better communication than ever because we cannot only follow others' words but also catch the screen and share opinions through "Mark".

Also we need do design review and modification, we input the 3DXML into PPT and we can navigate directly by using 3DXML player. Sometimes we also do review with iPad because it is even more convenient.

3DXML file of the 3D sketch, "for review". Click on picture to visualize it in 3D:	3DXML file "with authoring" data. Click on document to download:
Note: Use Firefox or Chrome and check the little shield or warning icons at the left or right of your browser address bar to accept the execution of 3D player script.

3.Concept

For this step, we use CATIA Imagine & Shape, to quickly finish the conceptual model of the Concept SUV car based on the 3D sketching with subdivision technology.

Imagine & Shape is a very free tool, we tried 2 different modeling ways to reach the goal:

<1> Build the big surfaces then merge, like the "b le u" car way:

<2> From easy to complex, from rough to detail, we started from a cube, then subdivide and modify until the final shape.

For the methodology you can find a nice tutorial in China CATIA Design community: https://swym.3ds.com/#post:33177

After we have a rough shape, it goes to the design character modeling, we took use of the trace of Natural Sketch for "Alignment" to keep design intent and make the work easier.

Then we go back to Natural Sketch to design the lamp and details, we sketch on top of surface just like what we do on top of paper.

Design exploration is always needed, after copy and paste, we modify the control points to get more ideas.

4.Refinement

Then it is detail design and surface refinement, we use CATIA ICEM in the same platform so that it is very efficient. And the feature modeling in CATIA ICEM helped us saved a lot of time.

5.Validation

CATIA Live Rendering in 3DEXPERIENCE platform is the app we use. Because all process are in the same platform so there is no data transfer issue, we can keep CATIA Live Rendering get used during the whole process. When we do modeling even 3D sketching, we put the car inside a real environment,or with materials on top, then we can make decision during modeling, it is like ideation in 3D again! And when we have the final model, we can easily get high quality pictures with CATIA Live Rendering.

6.Conclusion

This is the process of the Concept SUV design project by CATIA Design China team, during this process, what do we think are more than design, but the design process, design thinking and the usage of tools.

And the fact is, after this project, to do ideation directly in 3D, to have quick and high-quality modeling, easy design modification, anytime design validation, flexible design communication and review.... all the functions make the whole process easier and efficient! I hope that more and more people could do fantastic design works with 3DEXPERIENCE!