Engineering & R&D
Reverse Engineering
Turning physical parts into editable 3D data: scanning, surface reconstruction and drawings built for manufacture.
When reverse engineering is needed
Three situations come up most: a legacy product must be produced again but the drawings are gone; a sample exists and needs modifying; or a part must be made to fit somebody else’s product.
Each places different demands on the data. Legacy production wants faithful reproduction; restyling wants editable parameters; an accessory needs accurate mating faces and can simplify the rest. Deciding which one it is before starting saves a great deal of rework.
Scanning is not modelling
A scan produces point clouds and meshes. You can view and measure them, but you cannot machine from them or edit the design. Surface reconstruction is the real work: deciding what was originally a plane, what was a standard cylinder, and which radii are design intent rather than wear.
Done crudely, the resulting model has rippled surfaces and collapses the moment a dimension changes.
About accuracy
Scan accuracy and final model accuracy are different things. The physical part carries wear, distortion and draft; reproducing it one to one bakes those defects in. We agree which features are design intent and which are manufacturing deviation, then regularise the former and ignore the latter.
Capabilities
| Deliverables | Editable parametric data (STEP / native), engineering drawings, raw scan data on request |
|---|---|
| Size range | Subject to equipment envelope (to be confirmed) |
| Typical duration | 3–7 working days at moderate complexity, including one revision |
| Accuracy | Subject to review — depends on part condition and reproduction requirement; no blanket figure is promised |