46 COMPUTER SYSTEMS/SOFTWARE
Closer integration of reverse engineering and CAD techniques
Both reverse engineering and three-dimensional CAD are established techniques, but using the two together has not always been as easy as it could be. Jon Severn reports on a development that combines solid, surface and triangle modelling to enable reverse engineering and CAD to be more closely integrated.
L’ingénierie inverse et la CAO en trois dimensions sont des techniques bien établies, mais il n’a pas toujours été facile de les utiliser ensemble. Jon Severn présente un développement qui associe la modélisation solide, superficielle et triangulaire pour mieux intégrer l’ingénierie inverse et la CAO.
Sowohl Reverse Engineering als auch dreidimensionale CAD sind etablierte Techniken, aber die gemeinsame Verwendung von beiden ist nicht immer so leicht, wie sie sein könnte. Jon Severn berichtet über eine Entwicklung, die Festkörper-, Oberflächen- und Dreiecksmodellierung einsetzt, um eine engere Integration von Reverse Engineering und CAD zu ermöglichen.
adapted from existing ones for which no CAD data is available, and the creation of such data would be time-consuming and costly. Reverse engineering the existing product by using a three-dimensional scanner and appropriate software can be very cost-effective in such situations, though the resultant data is not necessarily as easy to use as a starting point for the new design as might be expected. Another way in
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which scanned data plays a crucial role in the creation of new products is in the medical and dental fields. Yet again, however, the designer faces the problem of migrating the data from the reverse engineering software package to the design environment. The root of the problem in many cases is that scanners output data as triangle files whereas CAD systems use solid modelling, surface modelling or a hybrid combination of solids and surfaces. Delcam says it is addressing this
issue in a new version of its Copycad reverse engineering package. Copycad Pro is claimed to be the first product development system to offer what Delcam has called Tribrid Modelling, which adds triangle modelling to a hybrid surface/solid modeller. The Tribrid version of Copycad is said to improve the efficiency with which companies can re-engineer existing
ot all new designs start with a ‘clean sheet of paper’ or, more likely today, a blank computer screen. New products are often
products to create improved or bespoke designs. Chris Lawrie, Delcam’s CAD product
marketing manager, states: “The combination of solid modelling, surface modelling and triangle modelling provides a unique design system for these companies. Having all the different modelling techniques in a single package reduces the need to transfer data between multiple programs and so streamlines the whole product development process. Most existing reverse engineering software is limited to capturing data and creating duplicates. By combining all three modelling techniques in Copycad Pro, we
can offer a complete re-engineering package in a single program.” Delcam has developed
Fig. 1. Copycad Pro enables high-quality models to be produced from poor-quality reverse engineering data, or from damaged or defective physical components.
this new design approach through the integration of its Powershape surface and solid modelling functionality with the reverse engineering and triangle modelling
options that were in earlier versions of Copycad. This means that data captured using reverse engineering techniques can be transferred into the design environment more easily, thereby saving time in the overall process of creating the new design. However, the Tribrid concept is not just a matter of bolting together existing functionality, rather it incorporates a wide range of enhancements to many of the key operations. For example, major improvements have been made to the sculpting and model repair tools previously
Fig. 2. Analysis tools in Copycad Pro display the differences between the triangle mesh and the resulting surface.
www.engineerlive.com
available in Copycad for editing triangle files. These tools enable high-quality models to be produced from poor-quality
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