Our thesis
Designing around an existing vehicle requires geometry teams can trust. When suitable data isn’t accessible, engineers must capture and prepare it themselves. OpenMotive is building a shared library of verified, licensable vehicle geometry and component relationships to make that information easier to access and reuse.
Each part will include its 3D geometry, measured dimensions, position in the vehicle, mounting points, and connections to other parts.
We’ll document how the geometry was captured, which dimensions were checked against the physical part, and any known accuracy limits.
Engines come first, followed by the bays, drivetrains, and vehicles around them. Every addition should help someone design a part, build a tool, or understand the machine more clearly.
Understand the vehicle once. Build on that knowledge across every project.
The missing context
Before designing around a vehicle, a team needs to know what is already there. Without access to suitable OEM CAD, that can mean acquiring the vehicle, scanning an assembly, or measuring mounting points by hand. A manufacturer, simulation team, and software developer can each repeat that preparation for the same object.
Finding a 3D file solves only part of the problem. Its vehicle configuration, dimensions, source, and usage rights still need to be checked. Neighboring parts need to line up. Missing surfaces need to be identified. That preparation consumes time before the new work begins.
Existing providers address parts of this need. Our focus is making the geometry and its supporting information reusable together. A team should be able to carry a checked vehicle reference into its next project, with a clear account of what it can rely on.
Why now
Professional scanners can capture component surfaces. Browsers can display 3D assemblies. Efficient file formats and cloud APIs can deliver that geometry into other tools. The pieces needed to make measured vehicles accessible are available today.
Engineering AI adds another use for the same data. Companies such as Neural Concept already bring geometry into design assistance. Those tools, like human engineers, benefit from knowing the actual components and space a design must work around.
The planned library will bring a part’s model and measurement documentation together, so teams can inspect the geometry, understand its limits, and decide whether it suits their design.
More than a 3D model.
Know where your part needs to connect, what surrounds it, and how much confidence to place in the measurements.
The Subaru FA20DIT is our first target assembly. The current procedural model illustrates the block, heads, crankshaft, pistons, turbocharger, manifolds, sensors, and accessories.
For a turbocharger, that could mean its housing geometry, installed position, exhaust flanges, and oil and coolant connections—plus a record of which dimensions were physically checked.
- 2018 Subaru WRX
- FA20DIT
- Turbocharger
- 3D geometry
- The part’s 3D shape and measured dimensions.
- Installation
- Its position in the documented vehicle, mounting points, and connections.
- Surroundings
- Nearby parts and any areas that haven’t been captured.
- Measurement documentation
- How the geometry was captured, which dimensions were physically checked, and known accuracy limits.
- Vehicle configuration
- The vehicle and part version the information describes.
- Usage
- File formats and permission to use, modify, or share the information.
Measured datasets are in development; this profile illustrates the planned information.
Understand how it moves
A vehicle changes as it operates. Pistons travel as the crankshaft turns. Steering changes wheel position. Suspension travel changes the space between a tire and the body. Our motion model starts with these mechanical relationships: how parts connect, where they rotate or slide, and how far they can move.
Check whether a proposed part still fits as the surrounding components move. Does a tire contact the body at full steering lock and suspension compression? Does a charge pipe retain clearance as the engine moves on its mounts? A documented movement range lets a design check examine the space a part travels through.
Predicting acceleration, braking, vibration, or body roll adds another layer. Those results need forces, mass, stiffness, damping, tire or powertrain models, and validation against physical behavior. The integration strategy connects OpenMotive’s documented assemblies to established simulation tools, including the kinds of multibody and vehicle models supported by Simscape Multibody and Project Chrono.
Development starts with verified geometry, then mechanical motion and clearance checks. Later, we plan to add simulations of vehicle behavior checked against physical tests. The same records can help an engineer evaluate a design, a developer prepare a simulation, or an educator explain a mechanism.
Design for the space a part moves through.
Put that knowledge to work
These are the jobs shaping the platform. Each starts with a real component and puts the same vehicle knowledge to a different use.
Develop a design
Position an intake design in a documented engine bay. Inspect its connections and check for intersections with the captured parts around it. Use those findings to prepare a prototype and the next physical check, then carry the vehicle reference into the next revision.
Build engineering software
Create an assembly explorer, a CAD integration, or a tool for reviewing designs. The API design lets applications request components and their neighbors, with stable identifiers and dataset versions that keep projects tied to the same information.
Connect a signal to the machine
Follow a documented signal to its sensor and locate it within the vehicle. Diagnostic, tuning, and training tools can use that connection to explain a measurement in its physical setting. The mapping must distinguish direct readings from calculated values and match the vehicle’s control system.
Prepare a simulation
Begin with documented surfaces and assembly positions, then prepare them for analysis. As motion coverage develops, reuse joints and movement limits alongside the geometry. Supply the physical properties, operating conditions, and validated models the particular study requires.
Teach and create
Show how an engine fits together and how its crankshaft, pistons, and valves move in a lesson, game, or interactive experience. Use geometry and motion prepared and licensed for that purpose, with component names and relationships that make the mechanism easier to explain.
Give AI physical context
Give design tools the mounting points and surrounding geometry needed to assess a proposed part. For example, a connected tool could flag where a proposed intake overlaps captured engine-bay geometry, identify the dataset version used, and show which surrounding areas remain unmeasured.
Starting with the WRX
The first target is specific: help develop an intake or charge pipe around the FA20DIT in one documented Subaru WRX configuration. It gives us a part to design, connections to locate, and a physical vehicle against which to check the result.
The dataset scope follows that task. Use suitable existing data where quality and rights allow, capture the important gaps, and document what remains unknown. The test is whether the result saves preparation work and agrees with the measured vehicle within its stated limits.
Aftermarket development is the first commercial application. The same underlying records can serve software, simulation, education, and other engineering work as the coverage and evidence grow.
More useful together
An engine model shows the component. Add its engine bay and you can place it in its surroundings. Add a candidate turbocharger and you can investigate how it occupies that space. Connected records let existing geometry answer new questions.
A project can reveal a missing surface, a measurement to improve, or the next vehicle configuration worth capturing. When rights permit, that work can benefit the next team. Reuse depends on careful alignment and verification at each step.
Understand the component.
Start with the engine’s captured shape, dimensions, and documented mounting points.
Where does it mount?
Conceptual relationships. The drawing shows the idea, without depicting measured geometry or confirmed fitment.
Building trust
Trust starts with a record of what was measured, how it was checked, and which vehicle it describes. Our standards distinguish measured, documented, calculated, assumed, and unknown information. Dataset versions preserve the evidence behind earlier decisions.
Geometry can reveal an intersection with captured surfaces. It cannot establish material strength, temperature limits, or what exists in an unscanned area. Those questions require additional evidence and physical validation. Useful data makes its limits visible.
Usage rights need the same clarity. A team should know whether it can display, modify, distribute, or expose a dataset to AI tools. Keeping evidence and permissions attached to the component makes the knowledge usable beyond a single tool or project.
The evidence travels with the geometry.
What comes next
Start with a useful engine dataset. Connect it to its bay, then to cooling, steering, suspension, and the body around it. Expand when a new assembly helps someone complete real work and the evidence supports its use.
OpenMotive is in early development. The vehicle and engine visuals are illustrative; measured datasets, engineering motion models, and CAD/API integrations are planned. The next milestone is a documented workflow checked against a physical vehicle.
The long-term ambition is access as straightforward as a mapping service: request the part of the vehicle your project needs and build on the information returned. An engineer gets a starting point for a design. A developer gets data for an application. The work of understanding the vehicle carries forward.