The complexity of automotive market, the request of new gearbox layout able to improve the efficiency of a vehicle and the requirement of quick and effective design of gearboxes push the designers to seek new technologies, new layouts, new solutions. The typical development of a gearbox requires a lot of time and engineers' effort and it often implies a lot of time to define the right layout.
The idea of developing a "paradigm" able to guide the designer through the design process seems to be effective. Starting from the experience of a code called "Engine Paradigm" where such idea was firstly implemented, the authors propose in the present paper the development of a code able to suggest a first attempt design of a gearbox. The "Gearbox Paradigm" code requires few data introduction, as torque, power, number of gears, some geometrical constraints such as the axes gap the gearbox layout, and the code elaborates a proposal of CAD design of a gearbox. All the calculation about gears, synchronizers, shafts, bearings, couplings are made by the code and some geometrical features are defined. These features are then passed to a CAD for generating the first attempt design and provide engineers of a starting point. The process is very fast, so a lot of configurations can be investigated.
This instrument is not only useful for the design process, but also for the teaching activity. In the authors experience, having the possibility to use such a code during practice at school can help students to learn quickly gearboxes elements and configurations.