Preserving car sylists' design intent through an ontology

This paper presents a first step in the elaboration
of a knowledge-based modelling environment supporting
the conceptual design phase of an industrial product;
more precisely, car styling is the considered application field.
To capture and structure the semantics embedded in the first
sketches representing the product, an ontology has been created
and will be the interface between the modeller and the
stylist to generate and manipulate the curves forming the
basic framework of the product shape at the early design
phase. The ontology has been conceived in two layers: the
first fragment captures the contextual semantic information
specific to cars. Whereas the second fragment is productindependent
and is related to the manipulation of curves
based on a process grammar, providing an exhaustive and
intuitive classification and manipulation of curves. The links
between these two subsets will be able to map the aesthetic
intent through shape characteristics and operators intuitive
for designers