automotive design Automotive design is the process of developing the appearance (and to some extent the ergonomics) of motor vehicles - including automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, buses, coaches, and vans. The functional design and development of a modern moto ...

, a class A surface is any of a set of freeform surfaces of high efficiency and quality. Although, strictly, it is nothing more than saying the surfaces have curvature and tangency alignment – to ideal aesthetical reflection quality, many people interpret class A surfaces to have G2 (or even G3) curvature continuity to one another (see free form surface modelling). Surface1

Class A surfacing is done using

computer-aided industrial design Computer Aided Industrial Design (CAID) is a subset of computer-aided design (CAD) software that can assist in creating the look-and-feel or industrial design aspects of a product in development. CAID programs tend to provide designers with impro ...

applications. Class A surface modellers are also called "digital sculptors" in the industry.

Industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advance of the manufactur ...

ers develop their design styling through the A-Surface, the physical surface the end user can feel, touch, see etc.

Application

A common method of working is to start with a prototype model and produce smooth mathematical Class A surfaces to describe the product's outer body. From this the production of tools and inspection of finished parts can be carried out. Class A surfacing complements the prototype modelling stage by reducing time and increasing control over design iterations. Class A surfaces can be defined as any surface, that has styling intent, that is either seen, touched, or both and mathematically meets the definition for Bézier.

Automotive design application

application Class A surfaces are created on all visible exterior surfaces (ex; body panels, bumper, grill, lights etc.) and all visible surfaces of see-touch & feel parts in interior (ex: Dashboard, seats, door pads etc.). This can also include beauty covers in the engine compartment, mud flaps, trunk panels and carpeting.

Product design application

Back of iPhone 3G white showing the fixed focus 2 megapixel camera

In the product design realm, Class A surfacing can be applied to such things like housing for industrial appliances that are injection moulded, home appliances, highly aesthetic plastic packaging defined by highly organic surfaces, toys or furniture. Among the most famous users of

Autodesk Alias Autodesk Alias (formerly known as Alias StudioTools) is a family of computer-aided industrial design (CAID) software predominantly used in automotive design and industrial design for generating class A surfaces using Bézier surface and non-uni ...

software in product design is Apple.

Aerospace design application

Aerospace has styling and product design considerations in interiors like bezels for air vents and lights, interior roof storage racks, seats and cockpit area etc. In recent years

Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...

used

ICEM Surf ICEM Surf is a computer-aided industrial design (a.k.a. CAID) software used for creating 3D digital surfaces for automotive design and industrial design. This software is used to create class A surfaces using the Bézier surface modeling method ...

for generating the exterior surface geometry for

Aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

and

Aerodynamic Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dyn ...

optimisation before delivering the surface to downstream CAD software like

CATIA CATIA (, an acronym of computer-aided three-dimensional interactive application) is a multi-platform software suite for computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE), 3D modeling and Product l ...

Clay modelling

Class A surfacing / digital sculpting is similar to clay modelling with the added advantage of computing power to change or incorporate design changes in existing/new design. Moreover, the revisions of clay modelling and refinement iteration are carried out in digital version. The scanned data of a selected clay model will be taken as a "Point cloud data" input, and Class A designers work on this Point cloud data to generate preliminary surfaces and further refine them to Class A surfaces.

Notable software

Class A surfacing is also called "

digital sculpting Digital sculpting, also known as sculpt modeling or 3D sculpting, is the use of software that offers tools to push, pull, smooth, grab, pinch or otherwise manipulate a digital object as if it were made of a real-life substance such as clay. Sculp ...

" with numerous software tools now available in the automotive industry. The most widely used software tools are Alias by

Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered ...

followed by Imageware and Unigraphics (Class-A Module) and Catia (FreeStyle Module) by Dassault systems etc and Tebis Cad/Cam.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Class A Surfaces Vehicle design Computer-aided design software Computer-aided industrial design Computer-aided design 3D computer graphics Surfaces Graphic design