Vehicle Design Tools

Abstract

A computer-implemented method of generating one or more designs for a vehicle using a vehicle modeling application configured to generate a three-dimensional model of the vehicle from a vehicle model definition, the vehicle model definition defining a set of values ​​for geometric properties of the vehicle. A set of vehicle model definitions is generated, each vehicle model definition satisfying a set of geometric constraints. The set of vehicle model definitions is then filtered by generating a three-dimensional model of the vehicle from the vehicle model definitions using the vehicle modeling application, determining whether the three-dimensional model satisfies a first set of physical constraints, and removing the vehicle model definition from the set of vehicle model definitions if the three-dimensional model does not satisfy the set of physical constraints.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to generating designs for vehicles. More particularly, but not by way of limitation, the present invention relates to computer-implemented methods of generating one or more designs for vehicles, and computer program products configured to perform such methods. [Background technology]

[0002] Designs for vehicles, such as aircraft, are typically created by a manual process. Potential designs will be created by a user using, for example, CAD software, based on previous designs known to the user. If a user wishes to design a vehicle with certain characteristics, such as certain aerodynamic properties, the user will attempt to use their judgment or intuition to provide one or more vehicle designs that meet those characteristics. Once the vehicle designs are created, various analytical tools can be used on the vehicle designs to, for example, examine whether they meet required aerodynamic requirements. However, such analytical tools often require significant processing power and therefore can only be feasibly used on a small number of potential vehicle designs.

[0003] As a result, such a design process can be very time consuming. Additionally, potentially suitable vehicle designs may never be considered because it is not feasible for a user to create all possible vehicle designs that could potentially meet their requirements.

[0004] The present invention seeks to alleviate the problems mentioned above.Alternatively or additionally, the present invention seeks to provide an improved method of generating designs for vehicles. Summary of the Invention

[0005] According to an embodiment of the invention, there is provided a computer-implemented method of generating one or more designs for a vehicle using a vehicle modeling application configured to generate a three-dimensional model of the vehicle from a vehicle model definition, the vehicle model definition defining a set of values ​​for geometric properties of the vehicle, the method comprising: receiving a set of shape constraints, where each shape constraint defines a set of allowed values ​​for a shape characteristic of the vehicle; receiving a first set of physical constraints for the vehicle, where each physical constraint defines a set of allowable values ​​for a physical characteristic of the vehicle; generating a set of vehicle model definitions, wherein each vehicle model definition in the set of vehicle model definitions satisfies each shape constraint in the set of shape constraints; For one or more vehicle model definitions of the set of vehicle model definitions, generating a three-dimensional model of the vehicle from the vehicle model definitions using a vehicle modeling application; determining whether the three-dimensional model satisfies each physical constraint of the first set of physical constraints; removing a vehicle model definition from the set of vehicle model definitions if the three-dimensional model does not satisfy each physical constraint of the first set of physical constraints; filtering the set of vehicle model definitions using a first set of physical constraints by performing: outputting the filtered set of vehicle model definitions; A computer-implemented method is provided, comprising:

[0006] By using a set of geometric constraints, a very large number of potential vehicle designs can be generated, rather than a small number of designs being manually created by the user. This helps to avoid any potentially desirable designs never being considered. However, by also receiving a set of physical constraints and using them to filter the generated vehicle designs, the number of vehicle designs can also be significantly reduced in an automated manner, so that any obviously unfeasible designs can be omitted, yet the number of designs to be considered by the user does not become unmanageable. If the processing power required to determine whether each physical constraint is satisfied is small, a filtered set of vehicle designs can be generated quickly, and the user can then perform any further analysis of the vehicle designs that the user desires, including analysis that requires more processing power, which analysis therefore cannot be feasibly performed on the larger set of vehicle designs that were initially generated. In addition, using a vehicle modeling application rather than, for example, a general purpose CAD program means that the size of each vehicle model definition can be reduced, since only the information required by the vehicle modeling application to generalize the vehicle model needs to be stored, and not the complete information about all the surfaces of the vehicle and the like as would be required by a general purpose CAD program or the like.

[0007] The one or more designs may be a design for a portion of a vehicle or for the entire vehicle.

[0008] A shape characteristic of a shape constraint in the set of shape constraints may include an angle of a part of the vehicle. A shape characteristic of a shape constraint in the set of shape constraints may include a length of a part of the vehicle. One or more shape constraints may be provided as components that need to be included in the vehicle design. Such components may be fully defined, i.e. fixed values ​​are given for all shape characteristics of the component. Alternatively, a component may be only partially defined, i.e. a set of allowed values ​​is given for some or all of the shape characteristics of the component. The set of allowed values ​​may be defined, for example, by a list of allowed values, or by a range.

[0009] The physical characteristics of a physical constraint in the first set of physical constraints may include an area of ​​a portion of the vehicle body. The first set of physical constraints may not include any aerodynamic constraints, which tend to require a large amount of processing power to be determined.

[0010] The generated set of vehicle model definitions may consist of all vehicle model definitions that satisfy each geometric constraint of the set of geometric constraints.

[0011] The vehicle modeling application is OpenVSP, which advantageously allows an aircraft model to be defined using only a small amount of required information, and such definition can be stored in a correspondingly small sized file, although other vehicle modeling applications may be used.

[0012] The method comprises: For one or more vehicle model definitions of the set of vehicle model definitions, displaying to a user a three-dimensional model of a vehicle of the vehicle model definition; Removing a vehicle model definition from the set of vehicle model definitions in response to a request from a user; filtering the set of vehicle model definitions using a first set of physical constraints by performing a filtering process on the set of vehicle model definitions using a user input after filtering the set of vehicle model definitions using a first set of physical constraints by performing a filtering process on the set of vehicle model definitions using a user input. The device may further include:

[0013] A user may request to remove a single vehicle model definition or a set of vehicle model definitions, e.g., all vehicle model definitions having particular geometric or physical characteristics. A request to remove one or more vehicle model definitions may be implicit, e.g., a user may indicate which vehicle model definitions they want to keep and remove others.

[0014] The method comprises: receiving a second set of physical constraints for the vehicle, where each physical constraint defines a set of allowable values ​​for a physical characteristic of the vehicle; determining, for one or more vehicle model definitions in the set of vehicle model definitions, whether a three-dimensional model of a vehicle in the vehicle model definition satisfies each physical constraint in a second set of physical constraints; removing a vehicle model definition from the set of vehicle model definitions if the three-dimensional model does not satisfy each physical constraint of the second set of physical constraints; filtering the set of vehicle model definitions using a first set of physical constraints by performing a filtering process on the set of vehicle model definitions using a second set of physical constraints after the filtering process on the set of vehicle model definitions using a first set of physical constraints; The device may further include:

[0015] This allows the number of vehicle designs to be filtered by the second set of physical constraints and the first set of physical constraints, but the second set of physical constraints is used after the number of vehicle designs has been reduced using the first set of physical constraints (and potentially also by the user). This means that physical constraints can be included in the second set of physical constraints that require a larger amount of processing power than is feasible for certain physical constraints in the first set of physical constraints, because the second set of physical constraints is determined only for a much smaller number of vehicle designs. These filterings using the second set of physical constraints can occur before or after any filtering by the user.

[0016] The method comprises: For one or more vehicle model definitions of the set of vehicle model definitions, displaying to a user a three-dimensional model of a vehicle of the vehicle model definition; Removing a vehicle model definition from the set of vehicle model definitions in response to a request from a user; filtering the set of vehicle model definitions using a second set of physical constraints by performing Thus, following filtering of the vehicle designs according to the second set of physical constraints, the user may again manually remove one or more vehicle designs.

[0017] The second set of physical constraints may comprise aerodynamic constraints, and each aerodynamic constraint may define a set of tolerances for an aerodynamic characteristic of the vehicle. An aerodynamic constraint generally requires that a greater amount of throughput be determined. All physical constraints in the second set of physical constraints may be aerodynamic constraints. However, the second set of physical constraints may include physical constraints other than the aerodynamic constraint that requires that a greater amount of throughput be determined. The first set of physical constraints may not include any aerodynamic constraints.

[0018] Each physical constraint in the second set of physical constraints may require greater processing power than each physical constraint in the first set of physical constraints.

[0019] The vehicle may be an aircraft. The vehicle may be an automobile, e.g., a racing car. The vehicle may be a watercraft, e.g., a catamaran.

[0020] The method may further comprise manufacturing the vehicle according to a vehicle model definition of the set of vehicle model definitions.

[0021] According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed on a computing device comprising a processor and a memory, cause the processor to perform a method as described above.

[0022] According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method as described above.

[0023] Of course, it will be appreciated that features described in relation to one aspect of the invention may be incorporated in other aspects of the invention, and that the steps of the methods may be performed in different orders while still being in accordance with the invention.

[0024] Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings, in which: [Brief description of the drawings]

[0025] [Figure 1] 1 is a schematic diagram of a software application system according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] 1 is a flowchart of a method for generating a design for an aircraft in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 3]3 is a visual representation of example variable components used in the method of FIG. 2. [Figure 4a] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a generated set of aircraft designs generated using the method of FIG. [Figure 4b] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a filtered set of aircraft designs generated using the method of FIG. 2 . [Figure 4c] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a filtered set of aircraft designs generated using the method of FIG. 2 . [Figure 4d] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a filtered set of aircraft designs generated using the method of FIG. 2 . [Figure 4e] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a filtered set of aircraft designs generated using the method of FIG. 2 . [Diagram 5] 1 is a schematic diagram of a computing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0026] A software application system according to an embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to Figure 1. The software application system 1 comprises a controlling application 2. In this embodiment, the controlling application 2 is Mathworks™ Matlab™. It should be appreciated that in other embodiments, other suitable applications can be used. In addition to controlling the operation of the software application system 1 according to an embodiment, the controlling application 2 can display output to and receive input from a user 4.

[0027] The control application 2 communicates with a vehicle modeling application 3. In this embodiment, the vehicle modeling application 3 is OpenVSP™. OpenVSP™ is an open source parametric aircraft geometry tool that can be used to generate three-dimensional models of aircraft based on common aircraft engineering parameters. It should be appreciated that in other embodiments, other suitable applications can be used, including other applications for modeling aircraft and applications for modeling other types of vehicles, such as automobiles or watercraft.

[0028] A method of generating one or more designs for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to Figures 2 to 4e. The method uses software application system 100 of Figure 1, which in this embodiment is used to generate one or more designs for an aircraft. The overall operation of the method, including any communication with a user 4, is carried out by a control application 2.

[0029] In a first step (step 101), the user 4 provides the control application 2 with one or more definitions of fixed components for the aircraft. Fixed components are components of an aircraft that must be present in all generated aircraft designs and whose geometric properties are fully defined, in other words the dimensions and angles of the components are all given fixed values. For example, the user 10 may provide a definition for the fuselage of an aircraft, so that all aircraft designs are required to have that fuselage. The user 10 may provide definitions for other fixed components, such as the tail for the aircraft. The definition of each fixed component is provided as one or more .vsp3 files, which is the format used by openVSP, the vehicle modeling application 3. The fixed components may have been designed in openVSP, which may have been done as part of the process of generating the aircraft design, or the files may have been obtained from a store of existing files.

[0030] Next (step 103), the user 4 provides one or more definitions of variable components for the aircraft. These define the components of the aircraft at which some of the geometric characteristics may vary. A schematic diagram of an example variable component is shown in FIG.

[0031] 3 shows an aircraft wing represented by a wing planform 200. As can be seen, the wing planform 200 has a fixed width of 5.0 m on the side where it connects to the aircraft fuselage. However, the length of the wing planform 200 is given by parameter L. Similarly, the leading edge sweep angle of the wing planform 200 is given by parameter A and the trailing edge sweep angle of the wing planform 200 is given by parameter B.

[0032] FIG. 3 also shows a table 250 indicating possible values ​​for parameters A, B, and L. These possible values ​​are provided by the user 4 as input when defining the variable components. The possible values ​​are defined by a minimum value, a maximum value, and a step amount. From this, parameter A, i.e. the leading edge sweep angle of the wing planform 200, is defined as having a minimum value of 30° and a maximum value of 60°, and a step amount of 5°, so that the possible values ​​for parameter A are 30°, 35°, 40°, 45°, 50°, 55°, or 60°. Similarly, parameter B, i.e. the trailing edge sweep angle of the wing planform 200, is defined as having a minimum value of 0° and a maximum value of 10°, and again a step amount of 5°, so that the possible values ​​for parameter B are 0°, 5°, and 10°. Finally, the parameter L, i.e., the length of the wing planform 200, is defined as having a minimum value of 3.0 m and a maximum value of 4.5 m, and a step amount of 0.5 m, so that the possible values ​​for the parameter L are 3.0 m, 3.5 m, 4.0 m, and 4.5 m.

[0033] The definition of each variable component is again provided as one or more .vsp3 files, but modified to allow for indication that the shape characteristic can be within a particular range rather than a single fixed value. In some embodiments, the .vsp3 file may indicate the end points of the range and a step value. In other embodiments, the .vps3 file may indicate each possible value for the shape characteristic separately.

[0034] Next (step 105), the user 4 provides one or more physical constraints for the aircraft. A physical constraint is a physical characteristic that the designed aircraft must satisfy. For example, a physical constraint may be that the exposed area of ​​the aircraft's wings must be less than a certain area, e.g. 15 m 2 It may be less than.

[0035] Next (step 107), a set of all aircraft designs satisfying the fixed and variable components is generated. In particular, the control application 2 generates each possible .vsp3 file that defines the aircraft with components corresponding to each of the fixed components and components corresponding to the variable components with possible values ​​for those parameters. For example, in the above example, if the leading edge sweep angle of the wing planform 200 can have seven possible angles, then for each of those possible angles, a .vps3 file would be generated. This is done for each possible parameter of each variable component to generate a .vps3 file for each possible combination. For example, if the above illustrative variable component was the only variable component and the rest of the aircraft design was defined by the fixed components, this would lead to 84 (7 x 3 x 4) .vps3 files being generated, one for each possible combination, since the variable components allow for seven possible angles for the leading edge sweep angle, three possible angles for the trailing edge sweep angle, and four possible angles for the wing span.

[0036] The generated set of aircraft designs 300 is shown diagrammatically in Figure 4a. As can be seen, the generated set of aircraft designs 300 comprises various subsets 301a, 301b etc. of aircraft designs corresponding to different possible values ​​for different parameters of the variable components.

[0037] It should be appreciated that if there are several parameters for variable components that define several possible values, the number of .vps3 files generated can become very large due to the exponential effect of the different possible combinations. Because a .vps3 file is not, for example, a CAD file in which every surface of the aircraft is defined, but rather a set of instructions for generating an aircraft design based on standard design parameters, the .vps3 can be generated very quickly and efficiently and is very small in size compared to a CAD file.

[0038] Thus, while in this example a set of 24 designs is shown, it should be appreciated that in practice the generated set of aircraft designs may comprise hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of aircraft designs with a corresponding number of .vps3 files. Similarly, when it is described below that the number of aircraft designs is filtered to leave 12 aircraft designs, 5 aircraft designs, etc., it should be appreciated that the reduction may be from thousands to hundreds, hundreds to tens, etc.

[0039] Next (step 109), the generated set 300 of aircraft designs is filtered using the physical constraints provided by the user. For each generated .vps3 file, a three-dimensional model of the aircraft is generated using a vehicle modeling application 3, namely OpenVSP™. It is then determined whether the three-dimensional model satisfies each physical constraint, so that, for example, the exposed area of ​​the aircraft's wings is smaller than required. If any of the physical constraints are not satisfied, the aircraft design is removed from the set of aircraft designs. In this way, the number of aircraft designs can be significantly reduced.

[0040] The filtered set of aircraft designs 300' is shown diagrammatically in FIG. 4b, where aircraft designs that have been removed from the generated set of aircraft designs 300 are indicated with dashed boundaries, resulting in reduced subsets of aircraft designs 301a', 301b' etc.

[0041] Although this step is described as occurring after the set of aircraft designs has been generated, in fact it may occur in parallel with the generation of the generated set of aircraft designs 300. For example, after each .vps3 file is generated, a three-dimensional model of it is generated and checked to see if it satisfies the physical constraints, and only if it does is it added to the set, while, in parallel, other .vps3 files are generated and checked, and so on.

[0042] Additionally, the generated set of aircraft designs 300 may be filtered at this stage using other types of constraints provided by the user. An important consideration is that at this stage the number of aircraft designs to be considered may be very large. As a result, only constraints that do not require too much processing power to be determined from the 3D model of the aircraft (or the underlying .vps3 model, if appropriate) should be used, so that the step of filtering the aircraft designs does not take an excessive amount of time.

[0043] Next (step 111), the filtered set of aircraft designs 300' is further filtered by the user 4. The user may choose to display one or more of the aircraft designs, i.e. the three-dimensional models generated by the vehicle modeling application 3 from the corresponding .vps3 files. The user 4 may then decide to remove the aircraft designs, or a subset of the aircraft designs, for example all aircraft designs with a trailing edge sweep angle of the wing planform 200 of 10°. This may be done based on judgments regarding the physical, aerodynamic or other characteristics of the aircraft designs determined by the user 4, or for example aesthetic judgments (e.g. whether the aircraft design looks attractive). In this way, again the number of aircraft designs may be significantly reduced.

[0044] A further filtered set of aircraft designs 300'' is shown diagrammatically in Figure 4c, where the aircraft designs removed from the generated set of aircraft designs 300, or the filtered set of aircraft designs 300', are again indicated with a dashed border. As can be seen, this again leads to reduced subsets 301a'', 301b'', etc. of aircraft designs, with subset 301a'' now, for example, being completely empty.

[0045] Next (step 113), user 4 provides one or more aerodynamic constraints for the aircraft. An aerodynamic constraint is an aerodynamic characteristic that the designed aircraft must satisfy. For example, an aerodynamic constraint may be a maximum lift-to-drag ratio for the aircraft, which indicates how long the aircraft can stay airborne for a given weight and fuel. Another aerodynamic constraint may be that a measure of the aircraft's possible stability in flight is below a desired threshold.

[0046] Next (step 115), the further filtered set of aircraft designs 300'' is filtered using aerodynamic constraints provided by the user. As before, for each .vps3 file, a three-dimensional model of the aircraft is generated (or obtained if previously generated and still available) and then it is determined whether an aircraft of the aircraft designs satisfies each aerodynamic constraint. However, in this case, the number of aircraft designs to be considered should be significantly reduced, so aerodynamic constraints that may require more processing power to be determined can be used. As above, the generated set of aircraft designs can be filtered at this stage using other types of constraints provided by the user. For example, constraints may be based on how well the aircraft actually "sits," which cannot be easily determined from a simple three-dimensional model. Also at this stage, constraints that require much more processing power to be determined can be used.

[0047] A further filtered set 300''' of aircraft designs is shown diagrammatically in Fig. 4d. As can be seen, now only three aircraft designs remain.

[0048] Next (step 117), the further filtered set of aircraft designs 300''' is filtered again by user 4 so that user 4 can remove any further aircraft designs or subsets of aircraft designs that they do not consider desirable. This results in the further filtered set of aircraft designs 300''' shown in FIG. 4e, in which only two aircraft designs remain.

[0049] The remaining aircraft design may be output (step 119), for example as a .vps3 file, CAD files generated from those .vps3 files, or in any other desired format.

[0050] It should be appreciated that the steps of the method may be repeated iteratively as the aircraft designs are filtered to reduce their number. For example, additional physical and / or aerodynamic constraints may be added by the user at a later stage in the process. Particularly later in the process, when fewer aircraft designs remain, more processor-intensive analyses may be feasibly used.

[0051] In addition, the possible values ​​of the parameters of the variable components may be modified to generate new possible aircraft designs once the original generated set 300 of aircraft designs has been appropriately reduced in number by filtering.

[0052] In general, there is considerable flexibility as to how possible aircraft designs may be generated and filtered and in what order the steps of the method according to the invention are performed while remaining in accordance with the invention, and it will be appreciated that the invention is amenable to many different variations not specifically exemplified herein.

[0053] Embodiments of the present disclosure include the above-described systems provided on a computing device and the above-described methods executed on a computing device, such as the computing device 1200 shown in FIG. 5. The computing device 1200 comprises a data interface 1201, through which data can be sent or received, for example, over a network, from a user input device, such as a keyboard, or on a user output device, such as a screen. The computing device 1200 further comprises a processor 1202 in communication with the data interface 1201, and a memory 1203 in communication with the processor 1202. In this manner, the computing device 1200 can receive data via the data interface 1201, and the processor 1202 can store the received data in the memory 1203 and process it to provide the systems and / or perform the methods described herein.

[0054] Each device, module, component, machine, or function described in connection with any of the examples described herein may comprise a processor and / or a processing system, or may be comprised in an apparatus that comprises a processor and / or a processing system. One or more aspects of the embodiments described herein comprise processes executed by an apparatus. In some examples, the apparatus comprises one or more processing systems or processors configured to perform these processes. In this regard, the embodiments may be implemented at least in part by computer software stored in a (non-transitory) memory and executable by a processor, or by hardware, or by a combination of tangibly stored software and hardware (and tangibly stored firmware). The embodiments also extend to computer programs, in particular computer programs on or in a carrier, adapted to perform the embodiments described above. The program may be in the form of non-transitory source code, object code, or any other non-transitory form suitable for use in implementing the processes according to the embodiments. The carrier may be any entity or device capable of carrying a program, such as a RAM, a ROM, or an optical memory device, etc.

[0055] Where reference is made in the foregoing description to integers or elements having known, obvious, or foreseeable equivalents, such equivalents are incorporated herein as if set forth individually. Reference should be made to the claims to determine the true scope of the invention, which should be interpreted to encompass any such equivalents. The reader should also recognize that integers or features of the invention described as preferred, advantageous, convenient, or the like are optional and do not limit the scope of the independent claims. Moreover, it should be understood that such optional integers or features may be beneficial in some embodiments of the invention, but may not be desirable and therefore may not be present in other embodiments.

Claims

1. 1. A computer-implemented method for generating one or more designs for a vehicle using a vehicle modeling application configured to generate a three-dimensional model of a vehicle from a vehicle model definition, the vehicle model definition defining a set of values ​​for geometric properties of the vehicle, the method comprising: receiving a set of shape constraints, where each shape constraint defines a set of allowed values ​​for a shape characteristic of the vehicle; receiving a first set of physical constraints for the vehicle, where each physical constraint defines a set of allowable values ​​for a physical characteristic of the vehicle; generating a set of vehicle model definitions, wherein each vehicle model definition in the set of vehicle model definitions satisfies each geometry constraint in the set of geometry constraints; for one or more vehicle model definitions of the set of vehicle model definitions, generating a three-dimensional model of the vehicle from the vehicle model definitions using the vehicle modeling application; determining whether the three-dimensional model satisfies each physical constraint of the first set of physical constraints; removing the vehicle model definition from the set of vehicle model definitions if the three-dimensional model does not satisfy each physical constraint of the first set of physical constraints; filtering the set of vehicle model definitions using the first set of physical constraints by performing: outputting the filtered set of vehicle model definitions; A method comprising:

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the shape characteristic of a shape constraint in the set of shape constraints includes an angle of a portion of the vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the shape characteristic of a shape constraint of the set of shape constraints comprises a length of a portion of the vehicle.

4. The method of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the physical characteristic of a physical constraint of the first set of physical constraints comprises an area of ​​a portion of the vehicle body.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the generated set of vehicle model definitions consists of all vehicle model definitions that satisfy each geometric constraint of the set of geometric constraints.

6. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the vehicle modeling application is OpenVSP.

7. for one or more vehicle model definitions of the set of vehicle model definitions, displaying to a user the three-dimensional model of the vehicle of the vehicle model definition; removing the vehicle model definition from the set of vehicle model definitions in response to a request from the user; filtering the set of vehicle model definitions using user input after filtering the set of vehicle model definitions using the first set of physical constraints by performing The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising:

8. receiving a second set of physical constraints for the vehicle, where each physical constraint defines a set of allowable values ​​for a physical characteristic of the vehicle; determining, for one or more vehicle model definitions in the set of vehicle model definitions, whether the three-dimensional model of the vehicle in the vehicle model definition satisfies each physical constraint of the second set of physical constraints; removing the vehicle model definition from the set of vehicle model definitions if the three-dimensional model does not satisfy each physical constraint of the second set of physical constraints; filtering the set of vehicle model definitions using the first set of physical constraints by performing a filtering process on the set of vehicle model definitions using the second set of physical constraints after the filtering process on the set of vehicle model definitions using the first set of physical constraints; The method of any one of claims 1 to 7, further comprising:

9. for one or more vehicle model definitions of the set of vehicle model definitions, displaying to a user the three-dimensional model of the vehicle of the vehicle model definition; removing the vehicle model definition from the set of vehicle model definitions in response to a request from the user; filtering the set of vehicle model definitions using a second set of physical constraints by performing a filtering process on the set of vehicle model definitions using a further user input after filtering the set of vehicle model definitions using the second set of physical constraints by performing a filtering process on the set of vehicle model definitions using a further user input. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

10. The method of claim 8 or 9, wherein the second set of physical constraints comprises aerodynamic constraints, each aerodynamic constraint defining a set of tolerances for an aerodynamic characteristic of the vehicle.

11. The method of any one of claims 8 to 10, wherein the first set of physical constraints does not include any aerodynamic constraints.

12. A method according to any one of claims 8 to 11, wherein each physical constraint of the second set of physical constraints requires more processing power than each physical constraint of the first set of physical constraints.

13. The method of any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein the vehicle is an aircraft.

14. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein the vehicle is a car.

15. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein the vehicle is a surface vessel.

16. A method according to any preceding claim, further comprising manufacturing a vehicle according to a vehicle model definition from the set of vehicle model definitions.

17. A computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed on a computing device comprising a processor and a memory, cause the processor to perform a method according to any one of claims 1 to 15.

18. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 15.

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