The quality standards defined today and the high demands placed on the appearance of a vehicle, i.e. its styling, have combined to increase the degree of difficulty and the complexity of the automotive development process. In addition frequent data exchange within this process between styling, body-in-white design, and manufacturing is necessary since styling changes, for example, impact the exterior surfaces which may necessitate reinforcement modifications. After each modification the inner parts and styling must be brought in line. Today, topological structural changes in most cases involve still another completely new generation of the parametric model and the actualization of the parametrically developed body-in-white construction due to the fact that changes of class-A surfaces are supported by only a few CAx systems. This paper presents a methodology for parametric- and associative-driven design for class-A surfaces (exterior) to support all the engineering functions for the translation of the styling model into the inner parts (body in white) and into manufacturing. Also, it analyzes the working methods of the stylist in order to define the set of features meaningful for aesthetic design.
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