Just kinda curious to see if anyone uses any programs to design their cars or other cars on the computer, like realistic designs of the outside, aswell as building the components up and getting a demo look at what your car could look like, kinda like on the fast and the furious (1) when jesse is designing the supra and bryan is telling him he should go to M.I.T. but he has a.d.d. (only reason I’m referencing that movie is because I’m downstairs and my little brother is watching it right now) So yea, any programs for the computer to design cars, I could use CAD but I dont really like it, in terms of realism for cars, great for buildings and what not, but cars, naw, anything else out there???
i know that most people model in 3ds Max, Maya might be good too.
What did you say was the program name? 3d max? or Maya? like I have an idea of what I wanna do, but if I could see what I was going to do, before I do it, that would be extremely benificial, save time, money, and reduce any errors or trials I may have to do.
They have a car design program with Unigraphics.
Don’t be a ricer 
You could probably do it in 3DSMax or Maya, but it would be completely useless, as it would be merely a visual representation. Plus, you’d have to be obscenely good at it for it to be an accurate one.
The only useful modelling you could do would be in Catia (and probably other similar programs that I don’t know of), but it’s hard. And when I say hard, I mean way beyond the realm of your abilities, or any abilities you could ever hope to obtain, unless you dedicated your life to automotive design and learning CAD.
This would allow you to tune your chassis, suspension, even aerodynamics if you export the model and use CFD software. Pretty much the only thing you can’t do with it is engine simulations.
the amount of time you might “save” from doing whatever it is you’re planning on doing on any given design package is NO WHERE EVEN CLOSE to the time required to learn the software.
even with a proper course in AutoCAD under your belt, it would still take you at least a week of solid 10-12 hour days to get used to the basic functions of Catia V4 and, the present automotive standard, Catia V5. trust me, i’ve been through this before and as much as i like designing cars myself, i had no where near the amount of patience required to learn it so that’s why i quit my co-op job and failed that work term. if you want an idea of what it takes if you’re serious enough, check this link out:
http://www.dpcars.net/dp1bld/dc.htm
Thoroughly check the guys main site out too (www.dpcars.net) and specifically check out his design approach for the dp1 car he build himself.
Solidworks is a thing of the past now for OEMs and R&D and I believe might be found moreso in the aftermarket. Catia is the way to go if you want to get serious. These programs are mainly for engineering purposes, whereas programs like 3D Studio Max and Maya are purely based around graphics and more aesthetics.
If you simply thought the F&F scene you mentioned was “cool” and all, I definitely would not recommend you wasting your time with this. Learn as much hands-on experience first because you will realize that when you go about doing a certain job on a car, there will be things here and there you forgot to think of ahead of time…slowing down the amount of time you expected to spend and making you smarter for the next time you touch the car. Now try to imagine designing something for your car WITHOUT having enough hands-on (assumption…if you do, then i’ve been mistaken).
Bottomline…that’s why everyone always test fits. There’s absolutely no benefit in designing things ahead of time if your car is just going to be driven on the street. Just test fit, modify, test fit, modify, until you get what you need. If you’re going to be designing new components that have functionality and need every oz of performance from it for a track car or some project car, then yes, some CAD work may be of interest.
To be honest, I was mentioning the F&F scene because it was the easiest and best way to break it down. I have nothing but time and am not exactly uneducated. I used to design buildings with AutoCAD, then make realistic 2(3/m) models of them, exactly how they would be built in the real world. Although don’t get me wrong, I know it won’t be easy, nor was I expecting it to. I like learning new and innovative processes to design. Plus, the car I want to build, I want to make everything right, and I like being able to design what I’m going to build before I go drop 50gs into it. Now, this forum was more or less for knowledge about programs being used for the design of cars, any attacks on my ability to retain information, or knowledge already conceived isn’t what I was anticipating from a forum. Look, the purpose of this forum was to educate the uneducated, I’m very greatful that you decided to let me know that its extremely difficult and time consuming to learn these programs, but leave it at that, don’t assume my ability to consume knowledge, nor my ignorance to these programs. If I want someone to mock me or insult me, or to degrade me, I’ll go spend a few minutes with my mother. She always has a few encouraging words. Now I’m not saying that this in any way is directed towards any one of you in particular, it is only a warning, incase there are those who like to sit infront of a computer and run their mouths because the person on the other side of the computer cannot see nor hurt them. But thank you very very much kimmerkaze for your insight into this topic, it is much appreciated. One last thing, I’m not saying I’m a genius, just open to the concept of learning new things. I’m most likely just as intelligent as everyone else, but I love to learn new things, especially when its something having to do with cars. It just gives me the ambition I need knowing that I can conquer something, do you not feel the same way as I do???
solidworks is the best first step for you in my opinion then. catia would probably be too technical. once you learn most of the basics of solidworks you should have no problem adapting over to catia. this is mainly for designing functionals or parts that require accuracy and proper use of gd&t.
if you’re strictly after appearance only, try learning 3d studio max and then up it up to maya i’d say. i don’t know these two programs personally but have only heard good things about them in terms of graphics.
i wasn’t undermining you…i’m just used to the nature of this site so when someone posts something like that and i want to help, i sit back and think…is it really worth my time? seems like you’re serious about this and have some experience so that’s why i’m replying back.
:lol:Need for speed prostreet…looks real… as long as your car is in the game, its all good 
Thanks, and I am serious, I’m more about over all functionality, not really appearance, although, appearance is great and all, but there are many different & easy ways to go for that, I’d rather have all around design, appearance aswell as mechanical design, in order to fully design and balance out the combination of different parts. Aswell it gives me an idea, and I emphasize “IDEA” of what the car will look like, aswell as come together into one. And thanks for a more friendly approach.
Video game wise, forza 2 is the best, over 300 cars aswell, its actually astonishing the amount of cars in that game.
I’m sorry if I came off as condescending or rude, but the fact of the matter is right now, you don’t know enough to know how difficult it is. When you designed buildings/houses in Autocad, how detailed did you get? Did you draw out all the walls, and doors and etc, and call it a day? Because then you missed the different types of materials that those walls are made from, and how they function structurally. Were they reinforced concrete? Were they brick? Maybe they were wood structure with drywall on top. What was the spacing of the wood? How many lateral supports did it have? How many nails did you use? What KIND of nails did you use? What about the foundation?
Are you beginning to get where I’m going with this? Now, to top it off, a car is several THOUSAND times more complex. The shapes involved are insanely difficult to model. Look at your underbody, does it look at all flat and simple? Do you know where all the weld points are? Do you know what kind of fasteners are used at every point? Do you know what material each piece is made of?
I could keep going on with this list of things you need to take into consideration for days. I could not hope to model an entire car by myself. An automotive engineer with tens of years in the industry could not model an entire car by themselves. These things are done by teams of the best of the best. It is not arrogance when I say this is beyond the realm of your abilities, I’m just being honest. You have to first learn enough to realize that you know nothing, and you’re not even at that level yet.
3d modelling takes years of practice to get half decent, and i mean spending hundreds of hours perfecting details, not to mention the learning curve can take easily a year to learn to use the modelling tools efficiently and correctly.
proportion is another problem in 3d modelling. if your serious, use reference photo’s, import them into any program and start point by point line modelling. from there use fill tools to fill the edge-to edge, then use carving and smoothing tools for the rest.
There are too many programs out there to learn modelling. If you START with high end, you will give up. A good program that helped me when I started was Anim8or. Search it, It’s an open source tool, atleast it used to be…
Very good, and teached the basics of modeling and animation. Tons of resources online on their site including a forum and tutorials.
i rember that game from high school auto shop lol. its like from the early 90’s
I used to be really active in 3ds max, take a look! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYaY-5JOcJM
4+ years of practice my friend…
aaaaah, too much to read.
here’s a few 3d-modelling apps that are open source (most of which are licensed under the GPL)
http://osliving.com/archive/graphics-and-photo/3d-modeling/
i’d recommend blender - http://www.blender.org/
3D Studio Max and Maya are great also (i’d recommend Maya) if you have the cash, or if don’t feel bad about downloading them.
Catia is overkill for what you’re looking to do.
and like Solarian mentioned, unless you already have experience using this kind of software, it won’t be a walk in the park - more like a walk in the arctic… naked.
good luck.
We all gotta start somewhere, I ask because I want to learn, not that I want to be told its too hard. Obviously I’m not doing this over night, I want to be done my first design of a car before the end of next summer, personally, I think thats realistic, I draw them inside and out on paper all the time, and they aren’t just scribbles, they are actual good sketches, its just autocad sucks for cars, its pointless.
we’re not saying it’s too hard - we’re just trying to tell you to know what to expect. 
buying a book on the subject would help a lot, and i’d highly recommend it. jumping into a project like this, solo, will be really difficult if you’re not familiar with software like this.
good luck dude.
blender is pretty garbage, or atleast it was back when i was into this stuff.