Int J Interact Des Manuf (2008) 2:9–16 DOI 10.1007/s12008-007-0031-3 ORIGINAL PAPER Preserving car stylists’ design intent through an ontology Vincent Cheutet · Jean-Claude Léon · Chiara Eva Catalano · Franca Giannini · Marina Monti · Bianca Falcidieno Received: 14 September 2006 / Revised: 10 October 2006 / Accepted: 15 October 2006 / Published online: 28 November 2007 © Springer-Verlag France 2007 Abstract This paper presents a first step in the elabora- tion of a knowledge-based modelling environment support- ing 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 cre- ated 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. V. Cheutet (B ) · J.-C. Léon Laboratoire G-SCOP, Domaine Universitaire, Grenoble, France e-mail: vincent.cheutet@g-scop.inpg.fr J.-C. Léon e-mail: jean-claude.leon@g-scop.inpg.fr C. E. Catalano · F. Giannini · M. Monti · B. Falcidieno IMATI-CNR, 6 via de Marini, Genova, Italy e-mail: chiara.catalano@ge.imati.cnr.it F. Giannini e-mail: franca.giannini@ge.imati.cnr.it M. Monti e-mail: marina.monti@ge.imati.cnr.it B. Falcidieno e-mail: bianca.falcidieno@ge.imati.cnr.it Keywords Ontology · Aesthetic design · 2D sketch · Process grammar 1 Introduction Styling activity is crucial in the conceptual design phase of an industrial product, where the product is not completely defined and the generation of a first model is mainly driven by designers’ creativity and high-level constraints. Such requirements come usually from the so-called product brief- ing and from interviews of consumers. In fact, nowadays the importance of involving customers in the product develop- ment process by eliciting and integrating customers’ needs and feelings into product design is widely recognized [1, 2]. The availability of powerful and flexible knowledge technol- ogies has brought large benefits to the CAD paradigm, allow- ing for the development of product modelling functionality able to incorporate prior knowledge into the product model, thus integrating all the information produced throughout different design phases. Unfortunately, currently available knowledge-based systems focus mainly on the functional ele- ments of the design and do not support the management of the aesthetic knowledge; as a consequence, the industrial design process does not fully benefit of the technological progresses. In the car industry, the typical workflow [3] begins with a first description of the proposed product solutions through hand-drawn sketches, which express the designer’s idea, and therefore implicitly contain the semantics of the context (Fig. 1). Once one sketch is selected, it is scanned and con- verted into a digital format; then, the leading curves drawn by the designer in the sketch are used as a framework on which the different surfaces are built up with CAS tools. The result- ing 3D digital model is the input for successive design stages (e.g. manufacturing, assembly, simulation). Unfortunately, 123