Reverse Engineering refers to the process of creating a descriptive data set from a physical object . It is simply the quickest and most economical method for transferring 3d data into any computer system.

It has developed over the last 10 to 15 years due to the emergence of three dimensional digitizing devices such as the ATOS from GOM mbh of Germany that enable the form of physical objects to be captured easily.

Also due to the parallel development of powerful reverse engineering software such as RapidForm from Inus Technology of Korea that allows the data produced to be efficiently manipulated into a useful form.

There are two parts in any reverse engineering application:

• Scanning and
• Data Manipulation

What is involved in Reverse Engineering?

Step 1. The physical part is scanned using a digital scanner such as the ATOS optical scanner to acquire the surface topography.

Step 2. The point cloud set is converted to a polygonized data set, consisting of thousands of tiny facets. This can be done within the ATOS system or exported to a package such as Rapidform that allows the polygons to be manipulated to improve the finish or to add/ remove existing features.

Step 3. Finally within a package such as RapidForm, NURBS(non Uniform Rational B Splines) surfaces are added to the polygonized model.

This results in a watertight surface file. The geometry can then be exported to any CAD/CAM and rapid prototyping software, or it can also be converted directly to a parametric solid for use downstream.