Reverse engineering has a viable method to create a 3D virtual model of an existing physical part for use in 3D CAD. It involves measuring of an object and re-designing it as a 3D model. The physical object can be measured using 3D scanning technologies like CMM, Laser scanner, white light digitizer or computed tomography. The measured data usually represented as a point cloud, lacks topological information, therefore often processed and modeled into a more usable format, such as Triangular Faced Mesh or a set of NURBS Surfaces. For reverse engineering, CAD provides specific features which include model repair tools, ability to create CAD surfaces from mesh data, and ability to create perfect geometry. The data can be manipulated according to the customer's needs.
The HQ Reverse Engineering toolbar (High Quality Reverse Engineering) has the tools which have been developed specifically to facilitate reverse engineering, especially to generate class A shapes; the following commands are part of it:
Among all, Super Capping is the most significant command as it generates the surface over the input (point) data. The other commands primarily help in analyzing and preprocessing the scan data before it is eventually used by the Super Capping command.
You can activate the HQ Reverse Engineering toolbar from the Customize dialog box.