Computer-Aided Design is a leading international journal that provides academia and industry with key papers on research and developments in computational foundations and methods of design. The term "design" is to be understood broadly to encompass conceptualization, synthesis, realization, and evolution of artifacts, processes, and systems (both natural and artificial).

Computer-Aided Design invites papers reporting new research, as well as novel or particularly significant applications, within a wide range of topics, spanning all stages of design from concept creation to manufacture and beyond. Contributions are welcome from all disciplines and application areas, provided that they have a significant geometric, topological, spatial, or configuration design content, and present developments likely to be of interest to a broad spectrum of researchers, educators, and practitioners of computer-aided design. In this context, examples of relevant topics include but are not limited to:

    Foundational theories, frameworks, methodologies, and standards
    Mathematical models, representations, and algorithms for shapes, solids, structures, and assemblies
    Material, behavior, and physical modeling
    Conceptual design and invention
    Uncertainty and imprecision in computer-aided design
    Multi-scale modeling and design of shape and material structures
    System level design and model-based systems engineering
    Programmable subtractive, additive, and hybrid manufacturing
    Generative design, shape, topology, and material optimization
    Computational planning, fabrication, and inspection
    Discretization and meshing algorithms
    Data acquisition, model recognition and reconstruction
    Representation conversions and interoperability
    Applications of AI in design, including neural networks and machine learning
    Design ontologies, grammars, languages, and semantics
    Data driven modeling and synthesis
    Advanced support of manufacturing and downstream activities
    Technologies in support of digital factory and digital twin concepts
    User interfaces, system interfaces, and human-computer interaction
    Design databases, knowledge repositories, object libraries and retrieval
    Specific applications and significant benchmarks of computer-aided design

Types of Papers:

Research papers: report significant research and development results, describe the relevant theoretical foundations and methodology, and present workable algorithms and give examples taken from real world applications, stressing the significance of the approach being presented.

Application papers: describe complex and pioneering applications of CAD concepts, methods and tools in practice, present significant results that extend the disciplinary knowledge and/or analyze the application in a way that is likely to stimulate and influence further research.

Survey papers: critically analyze the current state of knowledge in a given field of CAD, summarize and organize recent research results in a novel way, derive new insights and deepen understanding of those working in the field, and propose possible topics, orientations and approaches for future research and development.

Technical notes: respond to material published in the journal or closely related topics, repair a flaw in the definition and approach or stimulate further thinking, or provide additional technical details on a CAD theory, technology, methodology, product or application.

Dataset papers: discuss creation, documentation, and critical assessment of data sets, repositories, and their uses supporting research and practice in all areas of computer-aided design. An algorithmic contribution is not required for a dataset paper, but the dataset itself must be made freely usable and accessible for research purposes. Dataset papers will go through the same rigorous review process and will be evaluated based on their novelty, impact, and presentation. Accessibility, privacy, and ethics are also important issues that will be considered by the reviewers and editors.

Special Issue on AI for Geometric and Physical Modeling in Design and Manufacturing
Submission Date: 2026-02-01

Scope and Focus:

Recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have sent shock waves across the industry. From the incredible success of deep learning in recognizing complex patterns in big data, enabled by inexpensive GPU computing, to the more recent breakthroughs in large language and vision models, the “third wave” of AI is ripe for disrupting science and engineering.

This special issue (SI) solicits novel research findings at the intersection of AI/ML with geometric and physical modeling, with a focus on computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM). To differentiate this SI from earlier SIs on related topics to AI and design (e.g., surrogate modeling for physics-based simulation, data-driven shape regression and generation, and model-based systems engineering), we place a strong emphasis on

1) the interplay of geometry, physics, and materials for design and manufacturing applications; and
2) fundamental contributions in the application of AI to reason about that interplay and/or demonstration of real-world utility.

Topics of Interest:

With the above framing in mind, the subtopics of interest may include but are not limited to the following:

    AI-based modeling, representation, and algorithms
    Data-driven design knowledge representation and reasoning
    Intelligent design intent and requirements capture
    Intelligent design at different scales or levels of abstraction
    Intelligent design for manufacturing and assembly (DfM&A)
    Generative modeling for design space exploration
    Surrogate modeling for analysis or synthesis
    AI-assisted discretization, meshing, and shape reconstruction
    AI-assisted representation conversion and interoperability
    Foundation models for CAx (e.g., CAD/CAE/CAM)

We encourage submission of research articles that either:

a) tackle fundamental challenges and present new insights/knowledge in the use of novel AI/ML to solve exemplar problems (e.g., benchmarks); or

b) applying state-of-the-art AI/ML approaches to solve practical problems (e.g., real-world use-cases) that could not be solved before using traditional methods at the same level of performance, generality, quality, or other important metrics.
In both cases, the emphasis on geometry, materials, physics, or their interplay and application to design and manufacturing will be key.

Of special interest are demonstrations of generalizability (e.g., out-of-training extrapolation), creativity, explainability, and interpretability with small/sparse data, using approaches to ground AI/ML in first principles. We also encourage demonstrations of how geometric deep learning and foundation models can disrupt computer-aided design/manufacturing (CAD/CAM) and traverse levels of abstraction, e.g., translating high-level and informal requirements to formal engineering criteria to enable analysis, synthesis, and design modifications, hierarchical representation and adaptive reasoning at different length scales, and bridging qualitative and quantitative analysis, system- and part-level design, and as-design and as-manufactured views.

Guest editors:

Morad Behandish, PhD
SRI International, Menlo Park, California, USA
Email: moradbeh@sri.com

Faez Ahmed, PhD
MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Email: faez@mit.edu

Mark Fuge, PhD
ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Email: mafuge@ethz.ch

Qiang Zou, PhD
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
Email: qiangzou@cad.zju.edu.cn

Daniele Grandi
Autodesk Inc., San Francisco, USA
Email: daniele.grandi@autodesk.com

Manuscript submission information:

The journal's submission platform (Editorial Manager®) will be open for submissions to this Special Issue from June 5th, 2025. Please refer to the Guide for Authors to prepare your manuscript and select the article type of “VSI: AI+Design” when submitting your manuscript online. Both the Guide for Authors and the submission portal could be found on the Journal Homepage: Guide for authors - Computer-Aided Design - ISSN 0010-4485 | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier.

All the submissions will go through a rigorous review process. The important dates given below:

    Deadline for the first submissions: February 01, 2026
    Deadline for revised manuscripts: February 20, 2026
    The final notifications will be sent: March 20, 2026

Keywords:

    Artificial Intelligence(AI)
    Machine Learning (ML)
    Design
    CAD 
    Generative Design 
    Manufacturing 
    CAM
    Geometry
    Physics
    Model
    Representation
    Abstraction
    Discretization
    Requirements

Special Issue on CAD/CAE Interoperability
Submission Date: 2026-04-30

The interoperability of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE), where the separate systems can seamlessly transfer data between them, has become a cornerstone of modern industrial innovation, and a pathway toward future intelligent generative design. Despite decades of parallel advancement, CAD (geometry-centric) and CAE (physics-centric) ecosystems remain fragmented, leading to the loss of design intent, intensive and highly skilled human interactions and workflow latency. While vendors are creating entire ecosystems of CAE and CAE capability, the need to transfer data and models still exists in most industrial design processes, and are the main bottleneck faced. The interoperability of CAD and CAE is essential to eliminate these bottlenecks, enabling real-time feedback, automated optimization, and accelerated product development. The recent developments of cutting-edge techniques on artificial intelligence (AI), advances in CAD/CAE system APIs, and the creation of engineering analysis ecosystems have the potential to revolutionize the pathways of CAD/CAE interoperability.

This special issue will curate breakthroughs in a common forum that enable real-time and smooth CAD/CAE interoperability, offering a platform for researchers and practitioners to showcase the solutions through computational and systemic innovations, helping to foster a new era of "smart engineering".

We welcome original research articles, application case studies with measurable impact, survey/tutorial papers, and benchmark/data/software papers enabling reproducible evaluation, addressing (but not limited to) the following themes:

1. Interoperability & Data Exchange

    Lossless CAD-to-CAE translation
    CAD model preprocessing for CAE analysis
    Ontology-based knowledge graphs for intent preservation

2. Intelligent CAD/CAE Frameworks

    AI-driven generative design with embedded simulation capabilities
    Physics-informed neural networks for real-time design feedback
    Automated CAD fixing, idealization, mesh generation techniques
    Knowledge-based systems for design rule extraction and reuse

3. Computational Innovations

    Embedded simulation approaches without conformal meshing
    Iso-geometric analysis (IGA) for unified geometry/physics interaction
    GPU-accelerated geometric and physical computations

4. Cloud and Collaborative Platforms

    Distributed computing architectures for large-scale simulations
    VR/AR interfaces for immersive design-analysis interactions
    Microservices for cloud-native CAD/CAE

5. Industrial Validation and Applications

    Industry-specific applications on aerospace, automotive, energy or biomedical etc
    Benchmarking and case studies for evaluating integration efficiency
    Integration with additive manufacturing and topology optimization

Guest editors:
Prof. Ming Li
Affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Computer-Aided Design and Graphics, Hangzhou, China
Prof. Trevor Robinson
Affiliation: Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom

Manuscript submission information:

    Open for Submission: from 01-Jan-2026 to 30-Apr-2026
    Submission Site: Editorial Manager®
    Article Type Name: "VSI: JCAD_CAD-CAE Interoperability" - please select this item when you submit manuscripts online

All manuscripts will be peer-reviewed. Submissions will be evaluated based on originality, significance, technical quality, and clarity. Once accepted, articles will be posted online immediately and published in a journal regular issue within weeks. Articles will also be simultaneously collected in the online special issue.
For any inquiries about the appropriateness of contribution topics, welcome to contact Leading Guest Editor (Prof. Ming Li).
Guide for Authors will be helpful for your future contributions, read more: Guide for authors - Computer-Aided Design - ISSN 0010-4485 | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier
For more information about our Journal, please visit our ScienceDirect Page: Computer-Aided Design | Journal | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier

Keywords:

    CAD/CAE interoperability
    CAD/CAE integration
    Intelligent CAD/CAE
    Embedded simulation
    Cloud-native CAD/CAE
    Topology optimization