Aesthetic factors in geometric modelling

CAD systems have traditionally catered for architectural and mechanical eng ineering designs which are somewhat constrained in scope. Problems concerni ng other types of design such as art design, industrial design or sculpting , where creativity and aesthetic factors play an important role, are nor ad equately addressed. These types of design require much more flexibility in both geometric modelling capability and user-machine interaction. This pape r first gives a brief overview of recent work which deals with creative act ivities, and analyses important issues that need to be addressed in object representations for 3D creative activities. We then discuss a scheme to cat egorise and represent aesthetic factors in geometric modelling.