Before we can talk about reverse engineering as an application, it is important to understand how and why it has emerged as a critical metrology tool for manufacturers, and how it fits in the rapidly evolving digital workflow. Just a few years ago, the term ‘reverse engineering’ was associated more with industrial espionage, stealing designs, or product features from competitors. What has changed? 

Since the introduction of 3D scanning technology, there has always been a need to process it in some capacity. There has also been a need to provide formats to bridge multiple platforms, getting data to travel through the lifecycle of the process. 

Today’s design and manufacturing world is quickly evolving to a model-based environment, one where intelligent 3D CAD models are the authority, containing not only the information to build a part or assembled product, but also to verify the end result against the nominal 3D CAD design. 

How will this image be used? Do I anticipate any changes? What are your tolerance requirements? All these questions are paramount in determining the successful path of the data output and each are mutually exclusive of one another.

The term reverse engineering can be applied to a wide range of technologies, including disassembling computer code, genetic modification, and many more. For engineering applications, it is more usually thought of as the conversion of physical parts into digital models.

Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of converting an actual object into a virtual 3-D model.

Like many other areas of manufacturing, it is easy to be dazzled by the “latest and greatest” technology and so overlook simpler, cheaper options that might be more suitable for a particular need.

Many ideas can spring to mind when one hears the term reverse engineering.