Styling Properties and Features in Computer Aided Industrial Design

Modelling tools supporting styling are currently being developed, taking into account a structured approach aiming at conserving the design intent during the whole product design process: this requires the storage of all the information necessary for recreating the model without losing any important characteristic. To this aim, it becomes crucial to study those elements of the model that may have a specific meaning directly connected to the design intent, i.e. styling features. The paper focuses on the definition and application of the feature concept for styling, mainly based on the research activities carried out within the framework of a Research and Development project supported by the European Commission named FIORES-II, which involved, beside many research institutions from different European countries, a wide and direct participation of industrial application companies, such as Alessi, BMW, Pininfarina, SAAB, Formtech and Eiger.