CAD
quality and efficiency
Keep it simple and effective...
Keep surfacing to a minimum as it is time consuming, it makes downstream tasks more complicated (pre-processing of geometries for simulations, for manufacturing, for assembly). It is more important to have a model that can be maintained and modified quickly:
Designers need to be able to thicken / shell easily without the need to repair surface quality issues
3D printing is growing and so we are using more and more STL files as output
Traditional manufacturing requires clean geometries to run CAM tools (computed assisted manufacturing) like tool path for CNC machines
Always design solid bodies as 99% of a racing car can be designed using robust mechanical methodology. Only surface external geometries, nothing inside the aerodynamic surfaces of the car needs surfacing. Even for aerodynamic surfaces, most of them can be made from sketches and extrudes. For example, on an LMP1 car only front splitter and canopy are surfaced.
Cutting-edge tools
P424 is being designed on Onshape, a Cloud CAD tool which is great for remote collaboration and shows the future of work processes with distributed workforce. Modern CAD tools allow extended design teams to work together faster with data in the cloud, access from any device and API connections to downstream applications like CAE (simulation), CAM or 3D printing.