Abstract
The state of the art about CAE technologies and the actual processing power of super-computing have taken an important role in the development of complex structures such as car body frames. Actually, the car industry is using widely these technologies as develo-pment tools, where detailed numerical models are being analysed to simulate Crash Test, NVH behaviour or the Flow Field around the vehicle, for instance, in feasible optimization cycles.
The increasing precision required in those simulations makes necessary the use of large and detailed numerical models, for which CAD geometry with a certain level of detail has to be available as a meshing support. Consequently, CAE analysis and optimization must wait for a certain level of concretion to be reached in the design process, based on conventional CAD tools.
A discussion is proposed about the need of new CAE pre-processors to be applied at the very early stage of vehicle design process. These modelling tools should work in parallel while Styling and Packaging studies are carried out, giving the ability of design optimization from the beginning of the project.
The third computer revolution concerning car industry, after the first one centered on pro-duction management, and the second related to CAD-CAM technology implementation, will come driven by Engineering Data Management systems (EDM) integrating specialized and automated meshing applications, which will become the basic design tools in the coming era of Simulation Based Design.