Computers have aided in the design of cars for decades now and each passing year sees the big beige boxes becoming a
more important design tool than the pencil itself. Ford is on the cutting edge of computer aided design with a new
software system called Bunkspeed that allows a design to go straight from a sketch into a computer model. Once
digitized the design can then be manipulated with different color and wheel combinations, and what’s most
impressive is that Ford designers can even set the vehicle in different lighting conditions to see how light reflects
off of its surfaces at speed.
The Bunkspeed software, however, hasn’t completely replaced the old
standard of clay models, but rather has reduced the number of clay models that need to be produced to reach a final
design. Studios that deliver Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Jaguar and Volvo products are all using the software to speed up
the design process and significantly reduce costs. It looks like it’d make a decent driving game, as well.
[Source: Ford]