Preserving car stylists' 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 product-independent 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.