Evan on Engineering Software

Here's a thought exercise for you: What is the most beautiful car you've ever seen?

If pressed, I might have a hard time choosing. I remember, as a kid, seeing the Datsun 240Z for the first time, and being completely blown away. But then, it wasn't even in the same class as the Jaguar E-type roadster.

Beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder -- but is ugliness a somewhat more objective quality?

In the last 5 or 6 years, automakers have gotten a lot better at using CAD, industrial design, and surface styling software to create the looks of their new cars. But they've not gotten good enough.

Consider BMW as an example. In Slate magazine, writer Mikey Kaus talks about a recent talk given by Chris Bangle, BMW's design chief. Kaus comments, more than a little critically, on Bangle's speaking points - but I can't resist adding my own comments.

Bangle seems to be proud that he's been able to replicate the curves of Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao museum in the BMW Z4 roadster. The idea kind of makes me shudder.

The Guggenheim Bilbao is held in high esteem by many architectural critics, but if you take a moment to look at its curves, you'll see that there is not one that couldn't be created by bending some paper card stock. It's a fair guess that Gehry designed the museum in just that way -- by making a paper model, which was replicated by designers in CATIA (the CAD program his firm uses.)

Interestingly, bending paper card stock is a good way to create aesthetically pleasing curves. Since paper, if allowed to bend freely, will assume a smooth low-energy shape, the resulting curve tends to look natural. This is one of the reasons why Gehry's design "works." It wouldn't have "worked" if Gehry had started with CAD, instead of starting with paper.

With all the advances in CAD, we're still not at the point where a typical user can create aesthetic curves as good as they can create with a simple piece of paper card stock. Until that happens, we're going to continue to see cars that look like they were designed with CAD.