Often machined parts need to be reproduced where the original manufacturer is no longer in business or the part is obsolete and no spares exist or there is no drawing available. In other cases a model of the original part is needed for improvements to be made.
Some parts can be measured using simple measuring instruments like digital calipers and micrometers. An optical projector may be useful. Where a part has more complex features like the cam spindle shown here, conventional measuring techniques are not possible, but a laser scanner has the capability to produce a 3 dimensional point cloud of the object.
Software turns the point cloud into a mesh, which forms the basis for reverse engineering the part.
MEL Precision uses Geomagic Design X to remodel the part from mesh sketches generated from the mesh. The designer uses experience to dimension the mesh sketches and add relations as in normal CAD to produce 3 dimension model features such as extrudes, lofts, sweeps and cuts. The model produced is a solid but has no material data and cannot feature screw threads or sheet metal features etc. Geomagic Design X has a transfer feature to convert the model into a native CAD model of SolidWorks, Creo (Pro/E), NX, Inventor, AutoCAD or SolidEdge, but the relevant CAD software has to be installed on the same computer as Geomagic Design X.
MEL Precision has SolidWorks, so either a SolidWorks SLDPRT file can be produced or a neutral format IGES or STEP.
The final SolidWorks model is shown here.
The reverse engineering process is shown on this video: