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Why Reverse Engineer?

A 3D scanner captures or copies a physical object to a file of 3D points. This is not dissimilar to the way in which a 2D flatbed scanner works when used to capture or copy a document; in this case the resulting file is made up of a series of pixels or dots. Both types of equipment can work as mono or colour devices.

3D scanning creates a file of points known as a point cloud, which is a series of x,y,z co-ordinates representing the geometry of the scanned object, and it is typically a file consisting of millions of points. The captured points can then be converted into polygons, surfaces or 3D solid models for a diverse range of applications such as visualisation, measurement and reverse engineering.

3D scanning is used in the following ways:-

• Legacy data - to scan physical parts where no 3D CAD data exists;
• Supplied parts - to scan bought-in items;
• Assemblies - to scan assembled components for a space envelope;
• Damaged parts - to capture data for analysis or for re-manufacture;
• Measurement - to measure specific dimensions or whole parts;
• Inspection - to compare physical parts to CAD data or to compare the master part to other manufactured parts;
• Visualisation - to scan data for 3D images or virtual mock-up;
• Analysis - to scan parts for analysis such as FEA;
• Tooling - to scan tools for remanufacture or to check for wear;
• Manufacture - to scan a part for CNC manufacture or rapid prototyping;
• Modelling - often prototypes or concept models are physically modified, so scanning ensures the data is captured and can be recreated, reviewed or modified.