Functional analysis of systems is a common engineering application during difference stages of design. Conceptual designers as well as post-development designers use the process to gather useful information about the system that is under consideration. The functional basis and component taxonomy are collective approachers to describe these sytems in unique languages. Since many designers naturally think in terms of physical components, it is more difficult for them to grasp fundamental concepts necessary to functionally model a system properly. A new design instrument conponent functional templates, has been developemd as a means to link the coherent visual form that can be used by novice designers as an invaluable skill-building toold. Principle components anaylsis PCA is used to extract historical data from many consumer products whose design information has been stored in the an online repositoiry produced by the UMR Design Eningeering Lab. This paper presents that approach and derivation of the templates, along with valid exmpales of template groupings that result in a case study on the drive train of a bicycle where the templates prove to sufficiently begin the modeling process and provide room for unique manipulation that accurately describes functional requirements of the subsystem.