Designers often see CAD as a part of the design process that only happens after a design direction is chosen.

Hoover Impulse is a project that does a particularly good job showcasing why my person design philosophy includes “CAD sketching“ at a very early point in the design process, before a styling direction is cosen. This sort of “sketching“ allows the designer to be totally accurate about what styling directions are in-bounds, based on essential engineering components.

Not only that, but it also enables the designer to create concepts with more thoughtful and sophisticated styling, because they are intimately involved in the relationships between the surfaces.