Reverse Engineering with VxModel and SOLIDWORKS - Introduction

When it comes to scanning for the purposes of Reverse Engineering many people of perception that things happen AUTOMAGICALLY is I say it. Meaning, you scan the part, hit got and edit a fully featured CAD model in SOLIDWORKS, just like in the movie Big Hero 6. Software is getting better over the years but it can’t read our minds. With this being said the engineers at Creaform are delivering some amazing tools for us to use to help us get closer to AUTO but not MAGIC. Over the next few months we will exploring how with Creaform portable hand held scanner technology and their amazing software we can achieve our goals.

Step one: Ask the Proper questions

What do I need out the products I’m scanning when it comes to CAD? This question is a loaded one, but should make you think. “Am I just using this an expensive tape measure?” If so, what does scan data get me that a measurement from a tape of caliper does not? Simple a snap shot of time of everything that you see from that measured surface, achieving measurement of things you can’t get with a tape or caliper. When it comes to CAD do I need a feature tree or do we just need to get chips cut on the tooling steal for this part?

Step two: What tools do I have available for reverse engineering

Creaform’s VxModel has a wide range of tools to help you get data into SOLIDWORKS. We will go through each one of these tools in depth and show you the power of the tool. I’m excite to learn them with you the same way I learned SOLIDWORKS over 16 years ago.

Let’s get to learning.

Cheers

Bob McGaughey, CSWE

CATI