An exploratory study on the use of digital sculpting in conceptual product design

The product design process involves intensive manipulation of graphical data, from pencil sketches to CAD files. The use of graphic software is common among professionals in this field. Despite this, the conceptual design stage remains intensive in paper and pencil work, as CAD systems are still too rigid to allow a creative production of concepts. In this paper the use of digital sculpting software is proposed as a way of producing 3D sketches in the early stages of the process. An experiment is conducted to determine to which extent 3D sculpt sketches can be considered as a suitable tool for conceptual design. The results show a better performance of 2D drawings, but support the complementary use of digital sculpting.

► The use of digital sculpting as a tool to produce 3D sketches is analyzed.
► Designers tend to add more detail to concepts when using 3D tools.
► 2D sketching still performs better in terms of number of concepts.
► A new approach to the use of computer in the conceptual stage is needed.