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Reverse Engineering
(Thanks to Yvan Germain and to Creaform for their contribution )
Reverse engineering is a relevant topic for this book, since with the
development of recent data acquisition technologies, it allows more and more
design and analysis possibilities.
This chapter does not intend to cover all software capabilities or working
methodologies, but rather to give a quick overview of what can be done in
this eld. To do this, four dierent workbenches will be used: Digitized
Shape Editor , Quick Surface Reconstruction, Free Style , and Generative
Shape Design, and it would be a good practice to have them readily available
by customizing the user environment and having the Workbenches toolbar
displayed on the screen to save time when moving from one workbench to
another.
DSE:Digitized Shape Editor
QSR:Quick Surface Reconstruction
FS:Free Style
GSD:Generative Shape Design
In all workbenches, tools will be available from toolbars or from the Insert
pull-down menu. To facilitate the association of the tool with its respective
workbench, each workbench acronym (DSE, QSR, FS, or GSD) will be
included within parentheses in the command name.
Reverse Engineering
In order to illustrate some commands or behaviors, an STL le is used as a
scanned support. This cloud of points le could come from a laser scanner or
from another source.
This chapter will cover the following:
Importing/exporting a cloud of points
Aligning the scanned model
Generating geometry from the cloud of points
14.1. Importing/Exporting a Cloud of Points
The rst thing to do when working with a cloud of points is to import it into a
part. Since the data le cannot be opened directly in CATIA , it is necessary
to launch a new part and to activate the Digital Shape Editor workbench in
order to be able to access related tools. Note that a cloud of points can also
be imported into a product if needed.
CLOUD IMPORT TOOLBAR (DSE)
Import (DSE)
As shown in Figure 14-1, the Import tool brings up a dialog box that allows
the user to select the le containing the point data and to format it in order
to get the desired working elements in the 3-D environment.