Reverse Engineering CAD Technology Application and Software

1 The concept of reverse engineering

Reverse Engineering (RE) is a description of the product design process. In the general concept of engineering and technical personnel, the product design process is a process from scratch: and the designer first conceives the shape, performance, and approximate technical parameters of the product in the brain, and then builds it with the help of drawings or CAD technology. The 3D digital model of the product will eventually transfer the model into the manufacturing process to complete the entire design and manufacturing cycle of the product. Such a product design process can be referred to as a "forward design" process (corresponding to a "reverse engineering" product design).
Reverse engineering product design can be considered a process of “from nothing to nothing”. Simply put, reverse engineering product design is the process of reversing product design data (including design drawings or digital models) based on existing product models. In this sense, the concept of reverse engineering has been used in industrial design for a long time. The hull lofting design commonly used in the early shipbuilding industry is a good example of reverse engineering.
With the wide application of computer technology in the manufacturing field, especially the rapid development of digital measurement technology, product modeling technology based on measurement data has become the main target of reverse engineering technology. The spatial data of the surface of the object obtained by digital measuring equipment (such as coordinate measuring machine, laser measuring equipment, etc.) needs to obtain the CAD mathematical model of the product by using reverse engineering CAD technology, and then use CAM system to complete the product manufacturing. Therefore, reverse engineering technology can be considered as a general term for related digital technology and geometric model reconstruction technology to convert product samples into CAD models. The implementation process of reverse engineering is a multi-disciplinary and multidisciplinary collaborative process. The entire implementation process of reverse engineering includes the process of integrating measurement data acquisition and processing into a conventional CAD/CAM system and finally integrating with a product data management system (PDM system). Therefore, reverse engineering is a multi-disciplinary and multidisciplinary system engineering. The implementation of reverse engineering requires a high degree of synergy and integration of personnel and technology.

2 The role of reverse engineering in CAD/CAM system

From the above we can see that reverse engineering technology is not an isolated technology, it is inextricably linked with measurement technology in existing CAD/CAM systems. However, in the actual application process, because most engineers and technicians do not have enough understanding of reverse engineering technology, the reverse engineering technology is equated with the existing CAD/CAM technology, and the technical level of the existing CAD/CAM system requires reverse engineering technology. Caused people's distrust and misunderstanding of reverse engineering technology.
From a theoretical point of view, reverse engineering should be able to reconstruct CAD models that are fully compatible with existing CAD/CAM systems based on product measurement data. This is also the ultimate goal of reverse engineering. But we should see that the technology that people currently have, including engineering and purely theoretical (such as surface modeling theory), can not meet this requirement. Especially for the current large-scale "point cloud" data modeling, it is far from reaching the level that can be directly applied in CAD systems.
Therefore, we believe that the current relationship between reverse engineering CAD technology and existing CAD/CAM systems can only be a complementary relationship. After decades of development, the existing CAD/CAM system is very mature both in theory and in practical applications. Under this situation, the existing CAD/CAM system will not and cannot meet the special requirements of reverse engineering modeling. Make changes from the underlying system. On the other hand, a large number of modeling methods used in reverse engineering CAD technology can fully draw on existing CAD/CAM systems without the need to build a new platform.
Based on this analysis, we believe that reverse engineering CAD technology is in a subordinate and auxiliary modeling position in the entire manufacturing system chain. Reverse engineering CAD technology can use the existing CAD/CAM system to help it achieve its own unfinished work. With this understanding, we can understand why reverse engineering CAD technology (including the corresponding software) is not always the mainstream in the market, and most CAD/CAM systems include their own reverse engineering modules or third-party software packages. A situation.

3 Reverse engineering CAD technology in the mold industry

It can be seen from the concept and technical characteristics of reverse engineering that the application fields of reverse engineering are mainly in the mold-related industries such as airplanes, automobiles, toys and home appliances. In recent years, with the development of biology and materials technology, reverse engineering technology has also begun to be applied in medical fields such as artificial biological bones. But its main application area is still in the mold industry.
Since it is often necessary to repeatedly test and modify the mold profile during the mold manufacturing process, the final mold can be obtained. If the final mold is measured and the digital model is obtained, the spare digital model can be used to generate the machining program when the mold is remanufactured, which can greatly improve the mold production efficiency and reduce the mold manufacturing cost.
Reverse engineering technology has a very broad application prospect in China, especially in regions and enterprises that produce various automobile and toy accessories. These regions and companies often need to manufacture molds or directly process products based on samples provided by customers. In these enterprises, measuring equipment and CAD/CAM systems are indispensable, but due to insufficient reverse engineering technology, the accuracy and production cycle of the products are seriously affected.
Therefore, the combination of reverse engineering technology and CAD/CAM system is of great significance to the application of these enterprises. This is something we have experienced in the technical service process for many years. On the one hand, various mold companies are very welcome to promote reverse engineering technology in enterprises, but on the other hand suffer from lack of necessary guidance and appropriate software products. This situation seriously restricts the promotion of reverse engineering technology in the mold industry.
Compared with the application time of CAD/CAM system in China for several decades, reverse engineering technology is only for engineers and technicians to understand for only ten years or even several years. Although the time is short, the broad application prospect of reverse engineering technology has been the majority. Engineering and technical personnel are concerned that this will play an important role in improving the overall technical content of China's mold manufacturing industry and thus improving the market competitiveness of products.

4 Reverse Engineering CAD Software

The implementation of reverse engineering requires the support of reverse engineering CAD software. The main function of the reverse engineering CAD software is to receive product data from the measuring equipment, and obtain a high-quality curve or surface model through a series of editing operations, and transfer the curved surface data to the existing CAD/CAM system through standard data formats. In the final product model in these systems. Reverse engineering CAD software is difficult to compete with existing mainstream CAD/CAM systems, such as CATIA, UG, Pro/E, SolidWorks, etc., because it cannot fully satisfy the user's demand for product modeling.
Many reverse engineering software becomes third-party software for these CAD/CAM systems. For example, UG uses ImageWare as the software for reverse engineering modeling in UG series products. Pro/E uses ICEM Surf as the supporting software for reverse engineering modules. There are also some independent reverse engineering software, such as GeoMagic, which generally have a variety of functions. For example, in addition to processing geometric surface modeling, GeoMagic can also handle the fault interface data modeling represented by CT and MRI data, so that the software is quite competitive in the field of medical imaging. Another type of reverse engineering software as part of a whole series of software products, whether from the data model or the geometry engine is consistent with other components in the series, the advantage of this is that the model generated by the reverse engineering software can directly enter the CAD design. Or the processing module realizes the seamless integration of data. The representative of this kind of software is DelCom's DelCopy software.
Here are a few of the more famous reverse engineering CAD software.

GeoMagic ()
The reverse engineering CAD software of RainDrop of the United States has a wealth of data processing methods, which can quickly construct multiple continuous surface models based on measured data. Software applications range from industrial design to medical simulation, including large manufacturers such as General Motors and BMW.
ImageWare ()
As a reverse engineering modeling software provided in UG NX, ImageWare has powerful measurement data processing, surface modeling and error detection. It can handle tens of thousands to millions of point cloud data. The A surface (CLASS A) constructed from these point cloud data has good quality and surface continuity. ImageWare's model detection function can easily and intuitively display the error between the constructed surface model and the actual measurement data as well as geometric tolerances such as flatness and roundness.
CopyCAD ()
DelCopy is one of the UK's DelCam family of CAD products that primarily handle surface modeling of measurement data. DelCom's products cover the entire process of design manufacturing and inspection. Including PowerSHAPE, PowerMILL, PowerINSPECT, ArtCAM, CopyCAD, PS-TEAM and many other software products. As part of a range of products, CopyCAD integrates well with other software in the series to make it easy for users to use.
RapidForm ()
RapidForm is a reverse engineering CAD software developed by INUS Korea. It is mainly used to process measurement, surface modeling of scanned data, and medical image modeling based on CT data. It can also perform measurement modeling and advanced graphic generation of artworks. RapidForm provides a complete set of tools for model segmentation, surface generation, and surface inspection. Users can easily apply the previously constructed curve mesh to the new model reconstruction process after scaling.
The above is the more common reverse engineering CAD software. The commercial reverse engineering software that can be seen in China is foreign. Although there are studies on reverse engineering software in China, it is mainly concentrated in several universities. Among them, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics have made in-depth research in this area. Some of these research results have appeared in the form of software products, but due to the stability and operability of these research software, It is not yet fully qualified to compete with foreign commercial software.
The reverse engineering CAD software QuickForm (http://), which was developed by professionals in the field of reverse engineering in China, is one of the better reverse engineering CAD software in China. The system uses an advanced geometry engine with good operational stability and good operability. Because developers have rich experience in reverse engineering implementation, the function settings and operation modes in the system are in line with the habits of domestic users, which is not available in foreign software. Another advantage of QuickForm is the price advantage. Due to the high price of foreign reverse engineering software, the price of QuickForm is extremely competitive in similar software. At the same time, the use of domestic software is also a huge boost to the domestic manufacturing and software industries.

5 Conclusion

This paper briefly discusses the concept and development of reverse engineering technology, and comprehensively summarizes the relationship between reverse engineering technology and existing CAD/CAM systems and the application fields of reverse engineering technology. The main reverse engineering CAD software is listed. The status quo of domestic reverse engineering CAD software is briefly reviewed. The characteristics and development prospects of domestic reverse engineering CAD software are pointed out.

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