Concurrent editing of automotive styling and structure with wireframe-pair

Abstract

A constant demand in engineering design is to couple aesthetics and functionality of design. In this paper, a method is proposed to rapidly update the structural analysis models given the modifications made in the styling/packaging designs, forming a concurrent mechanism for developing the automotive styling and body structure. The seemingly disparate domains are represented by and thus coupled through a pair of wireframes. A joint mapping based on the hard points in packaging and a part mapping encoding local influences between wireframes are established. The deformation transfer from one of the wireframes to the other is solved as an optimization with constraints obtained from the two mappings. Finally, the finite element mesh model is adapted in accordance with the deformed structural wireframe, using a mesh morphing method based on the free-form deformation technique. Numerical results validate the proposed method and demonstrate its effectiveness.