Automotive design is a type of design primarily concerned with developing the visual appearance and aesthetics of a vehicle. In order to be able to design a car, you will need specialized software (CAD).

CAD stands for Computer-aided design, and it is the use of computer systems to help you create, modify and optimize your design ideas. CAD software is extremely useful as it enhances the productivity of the designer and it also creates the necessary documentation.

One of the main advantages of using CAD software for car design is the fact that it is way easier to master this type of software than to use the classic pen and paper. This type of software allows you to share the designs with others easily, great detail when it comes to measurements and your intricate design can be rotated and observed from any side.

Car design software you need to try in 2019

Alias – Autodesk

Alias is a software designed by Autodesk and it is an incredibly powerful tool that you can use to work on industrial designs but is specially designed to be used in automotive projects.

This program has a wide range of tools that are very useful for sketching and modeling, and it allows you to easily go from 2D sketches to 3D models. It is actually used by Aston Martin to develop their car designs.

Key features include:

• Sketching and illustration tools – draw, edit, craft shapes, add details and materials, review
• Ability to define a surface from scanned mesh
• You can easily add helix surfaces in Freeform
• Enhance design reviews with VR
• Dynamo integration – allows you to quickly generate repeatable patterns
• Snap, scale, pivot images
• Multi threading
• New interface enhancements – customizable keyboard controls, snapping, marking menus, etc.

Download Alias from Autodesk

3DS MAX – Autodesk

If you need to work on automotive designs, 3DS Maxfrom Autodesk is an interesting pick. This is a highly accurate tool used by professional designers. Virtual Reality support is also available.

3DS MAX is a powerful software that can be used for shape modeling, that is why it can be useful to make a great car body. 3Ds Max could be a real advantage for your design process as it can totally help automotive manufacturers to create realistic car designs.

Key features include:

• Easy and robust modeling
• High-end rendering
• Efficient 3D animation
• Flexible interoperatibility – Revit, Inventor, Unity, Unreal compatible
• MAXtoA integrated plug-in
• Open Shading Language (OSL) – create OSL maps from simple math notes
• 3D Boolens – ability to create parametric Boolean operations

Download 3DS MAX from Autodesk

Blender

Blender is an open source 3D software that bolsters a wide range of useful tools for automotive designs. It has simulations tools, supports NURBS surfaces and polygon meshes and if you are an advanced user, you can develop your own features.

Because of it’s big community, Blender offers you a wide range of training materials and courses.

Key features include:

• Cycle Render Engine – Ultra-realistic rendering, real-time viewport preview, PBR shaders and HDR lighting support
• Modeling, sculpt, UV – Creating, transform and edit your models easily
• Advanced sculpting tools and brushes
• 3D painting with textured brushes and masking
• Python scripting and a customizable Python controlled interface
• VFX – it allows you to import raw footage, track it and mask areas
• Animation and rigging
• Combine 2D with 3D

Download Blender

Rhino 3D

Rhino 3D has many 3D modeling tools, and the drawings are so accurate that you can use them to even design prototypes of complex machinery. This program allows you to get the 3D capture of existing data.

In Rhino 3D, the accuracy of large projects is guaranteed because of its control over annotation styles and history for different dimensions.

Other features include:

• Free-form 3D modeling tools
• Compatible with all other design, drafting, CAM, engineering, analysis, rendering, animation, and illustration software
• Read and repair meshes and extremely challenging IGES files
• Easy to learn and use
• Fast even on an ordinary laptop computer
• Affordable purchase price and no mantenance fees

Download Rhino 3D

LightWave 2018

LightWave is a leading car design software that offers powerful modeling tools with the ability to create smooth subdivisions surfaces interactively.

This program has a simple to use layer-based system (nodal system) and it allows you to easily manipulate the filters, animations, and effects. You can easily duplicate objects in a scene using it’s Instancingfeature, and also randomly select, scale and position even surfaces that are entirely different compared to the source.

Key features include:

• Physically based rendering system
• Render and light buffers
• Volumetric engine
• OpenVDB support
• Surface editor, material nodes and surface preview
• Virtual Reality camera
• Integrated FiberFX
• Layout-based parametric shapes

Download LightWave 2018

Conclusion

In this article, we explored some of the best options on the market for car design software.This list presents you with a description and an overview of features so you can easily choose the best option according to your creative skills and needs.

Source: windowsreport.com