As I mentioned in my last post, I was due to spend the day today at the Geneva Motor Show. It's been 6 years since I participated in the event: I was there with Morgan back in 2014 (and then as a guest in 2015).
Over the weekend, however, Switzerland's Federal Council made the (hard, but probably correct) decision to ban events with 1,000 or more attendees. Which of course included the Geneva Motor Show. It's a very strange feeling to see all these events – including many smaller gatherings – being cancelled due to concerns about Covid-19. I was actually surprised our annual Sales conference (called One Team Conference or OTC) went ahead this week in Las Vegas, but I think it just made the cut: I'm guessing it would have been cancelled if held 2 weeks later. Hopefully things will have settled down before our annual internal TechX event in May – or AU London 2020 in June – but we'll have to see how things go from here.
The reason I was heading to Geneva was to help out colleagues from Autodesk Research in the UK who have been working on a really cool project for BAC: to use Fusion 360's generative design feature to create a lighter alloy wheel for the BAC Mono. Autodesk Research created a new design based on performance data provided by Dymag – the manufacturers of the BAC Mono's wheels. Based on this data, the team was able to use Fusion 360 to generatively design a version weighing a significant 35% lighter.
It was extremely important to maintain the overall design aesthetics of the BAC Mono, so this was an interesting test of applying the generative process to an area where the design language was already well-defined.
The results are stunning (to me, at least). The design has been optimised for 5-axis machining, the process that was used to create these "show" wheels.
It's nice to a little bit of Autodesk branding showing up, too.
The team at BAC worked collaboratively with Autodesk Research using Fusion 360, and said this was the quickest turnaround they've ever had on a wheel design project.
I think everyone was really disappointed the Geneva Motor Show launch wasn't possible for this year's model of this incredible car. The team has re-trenched around a virtual launch that will be taking place via social media. Here are a few shots of some preparations being made up in Liverpool, at BAC's HQ.
If you want to follow what's happening, the best is via the BAC Mono's Facebook page.
Congratulations to the team – from BAC and from Autodesk's Birmingham and Soho offices – for delivering this project so successfully! I'm sure everyone wishes Geneva had worked out (I certainly do), but the accomplishment remains significant.
If anyone has questions they'd like to ask of the project team, please feel free to post comments and I'll make sure they get passed on.
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