Reverse Engineering & New Product

Development

What does it mean to reverse engineer something?

Reverse engineering is the general process of analyzing an object in order to determine

how it was designed or how it operates. Reverse engineering is not confined to any

particular purpose, but is often used as a part of a company's research and development.

The process of taking something apart and revealing the way in which it works is often an

effective way to learn how to build a new product or make improvements to an existing

product.

How is reverse engineering performed?

To reverse engineer, a researcher gathers data needed to document the specifications of a

product or part by performing a product inspection. Reverse engineering allows

researchers to understand both the form and structure of an object and any aspects

causing it --or the product it is apart of -- to malfunction.

What are the benefits of reverse engineering?

The primary benefit of reverse engineering is new product development. With reverse

engineering, manufacturers can compete against products that dominate their market.

Creation of better product designs often begin with the reverse engineering process.

How is reverse engineering used in product development?

Understanding a product's use

Locating and fixing malfunctions or limitations with product inspection

Studying design ideas

Creating compatibility between products

Finding out if someone has copied elements of a product that is protected

by intellectual property law

Improving obsolete products

How does reverse engineering differ from other types of engineering?

When a product is engineered, the process begins with an idea that, working forward,

becomes a product. When something is reverse engineered, the process begins with a

product that, when examined reveals, ideas and other concepts used to create it. Reverse

engineering aims to duplicate the product in order to modify or enhance the original

product design.

What stages are involved in reverse engineering a product?

Identifying the product or component which will be reverse engineered

Measuring the product by digitizing it using a 3D digitization / 3D laser scan

Documenting the specifications of the product

Implementing the data generated by reverse engineering in a replica or modified

version of the original product

Designing a new product

Is reverse engineering for new product development legal?

Yes. Reverse engineering is a legitimate form of discovery in both legislation and court

opinions. The Supreme Court has confronted the issue of reverse engineering multiple

times and has upheld it as a vital method of the dissemination of knowledge that

encourages innovation in the marketplace and avoids the creation of monopolies.

See:

Nonobviousness and the Incentive to Innovate: An Economic Analysis of

Intellectual Property Reform - (PDF 238.2KB) from Federal Trade Commission

The Law and Economics of Reverse Engineering by Pamela Samuelson,

Yale Law Journal

Kewanee Oil v. Bicron [416 U.S. 470, 476 (1974)]

Bonito Boats. v. Thunder Craft [489 U.S. 141 160 (1989)]

Does making a temporary copy of an object in the reverse engineering

process infringe intellectual property rights?

Though companies have attempted to bring claims against those who reverse engineer,

reverse engineering is considered a fair use when "no alternative means of gaining an

understanding of those ideas and functional concepts exists."

See: Sega Enterprises Ltd. v. Accolade

Is reverse engineering an object affected by patent law?

Yes and No. Sometimes a product may contain components from different manufacturers

that may be protected by patent law. However, the specifications of the component must

be disclosed in the published version of a patent.

Since some components are very complex, it would not be possible to figure out how the

whole product works without having to replicate some of its parts.

Does trade secret protection of information contained within a product

restrict reverse engineering?

http://www.ftc.gov/os/comments/intelpropertycomments/%20nonobviousness.pdfhttp://www.ftc.gov/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go2260/is_200205/ai_n7052436http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=416&invol=470http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=489&invol=141http://digital-law-online.info/cases/24PQ2D1561.htm

Yes. However, the status of a trade secret depends on efforts undertaken by the owner to

maintain the secrecy of the information. There is no limitation on how long trade secrecy

is enforceable; trade secrets can potentially provide eternal protection for any product.

Should someone who plans to reverse engineer a product be concerned

with trademarks?

No. Trademark law protects words, names, symbols, or devices that identify the source of

goods and services -- not the product or components of a product.

Should someone who plans to reverse engineer a product be concerned

with copyright?

No. Copyright protects an expression, such as a literary, musical or artistic work.

Copyright does not cover ideas, processes, procedures, systems, or methods of operation.

3D Laser Scanning in a nutshell... 3D laser scanning / digitizing is a technology that captures the digital shape of

physical objects. Our patented technology will decrease engineering costs, improve

product times to market, and provide a whole new perspective.

Inspection & Reverse Engineering using 3D Laser Scanning Through the power of Laser Triangulation Technology, our 3D laser scanners are

ideal for applications in Inspection and Reverse Engineering. Whether you're an

animation engineer creating animated movies for the big screen, or in quality control

or product development, you can shorten product development time through our

cutting edge solutions. Take a clay model and quickly place it into a virtual world.

Or use our technology for reverse engineering, quality control, manufacturing, and

product design. Read Application Stories about our 3D laser scanning technology.

How 3D Laser Scanning Works Laser Design's technology uses Laser Triangulation, a precise method of 3D data

acquisition. Laser triangulation is an active stereoscopic technique where the

distance of the object is computed by means of a directional light source and a video

camera. A laser beam is deflected from a mirror onto a scanning object. The object

scatters the light, which is then collected by a video camera located at a known

triangulation distance from the laser. Using trigonometry, the 3D spatial (XYZ)

coordinates of a surface point are calculated. The CCD cameras 2D array captures

the surface profiles image and digitizes all data points along the laser.

Software Specialized for 3D Laser Scanning

Through specialized software from Laser Design Solution Partners, the 3D laser scan

can be easily compared to a CAD file, enabling deviations from normal to be

http://www.laserdesign.com/service-bureau-stories.htm

graphically displayed. Other software programs allow NURBS surfaces to be applied to the scan data as well as STL and CNC tool path files.

Please contact us or your nearest Laser Design Authorized Distributor for additional product information.

Reverse engineering

Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of taking something (a device, an electrical

component, a software program, etc.) apart and analyzing its workings in detail, usually

with the intention to construct a new device or program that does the same thing without

actually copying anything from the original. The verb form is to reverse-engineer,

spelled with a hyphen.

Reverse engineering is commonly done to avoid copyrights on desired functionality, and

may be used for avoiding patent law, though this is a bit risky: patents apply to the

functionality, not a specific implementation of it.

Reverse engineering is often used by military in order to copy other nations' technology,

parts of which have been obtained by intelligence operations. It was often used during the

Second World War and the Cold War.

Reverse engineering software or hardware systems for the purposes of interoperability,

for example in order to support undocumented file formats or hardware peripherals, is

mostly believed to be legal, though patent owners often aggressively pursue their patents.

Other purposes of reverse engineering include security auditing, removal of copy

protection ("cracking"), circumvention of access restrictions often present in consumer

electronics, pure curiosity and customization of embedded systems, for example engine

management systems.

[edit]

Reverse engineering of mechanical components

Mechanical components of mechanical systems, such as motors, or electrical systems,

such as plugs, sockets, and edge card connectors can be reproduced by measuring their

mechanical characteristics. In RE of mechanical components, the shape of the component

under scrutiny must be completely and accurately measured. The forces acting upon it

http://www.laserdesign.com/Contact%20us.htmhttp://www.laserdesign.com/map1.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Componenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softwarehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyrighthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militaryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_World_Warhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Warhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interoperabilityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_crackinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_electronicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_electronicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_electronicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embedded_systemshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reverse_engineering&action=edit&section=1

must also be analysed in order to ensure that the new component can withstand the forces

that the original withstood.

Coordinate-measuring machines (CMM) can be used to create a 3D model of the original

component, which can then be used in computer-aided modeling. New and improved

techniques in reverse engineering include laser scanning which uses laser beams to scan

across the surface of components of any shape and create a very precise image of the

component surface. This scanning creates a series of slices that, when combined, can

represent the surface of the object in a computer simulation.

[edit]

Reverse engineering of software

The term "reverse engineering" as applied to software means different things to different

people, prompting Chikofsky and Cross 1 to write a paper researching the various uses

and defining a taxonomy. From their paper: "Reverse engineering is the process of

analyzing a subject system to create representations of the system at a higher level of

abstraction."

It can also be seen as "going backwards through the development cycle" 2. In this model,

the output of the implementation phase (in source code form) is reverse engineered back

to the analysis phase, in an inversion of the traditional waterfall model.

Reverse engineering is a process of examination only: the software system under

consideration is not modified (which would make it reengineering).

In practice, two main types of reverse engineering emerge. In the first case, source code

is already available for the software, but higher level aspects of the program, perhaps

poorly documented or documented but no longer valid, are discovered. In the second

case, there is no source code available for the software, and any efforts towards

discovering one possible source code for the software are regarged as reverse

engineering. This second usage of the term is the one most people are familiar with, so

that at times, reverse engineering becomes a synonym for decompilation.

[edit]

Reverse engineering of binary software

This process is sometimes termed Reverse Code Engineering or RCE 3. As an example,

decompilation of binaries for the Java platform can be accomplished using

ARGOuml.org. One famous case of reverse engineering was the first non-IBM

implementation of BIOS which launched the historic PC clone industry.

In the United States, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act exempts from the

circumvention ban some acts of reverse engineering aimed at interoperability of file

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinate-measuring_machinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Laser_scanning&action=edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reverse_engineering&action=edit&section=2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering#fn_1#fn_1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering#fn_2#fn_2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reengineeringhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decompilationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reverse_engineering&action=edit&section=3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering#fn_3#fn_3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_platformhttp://www.argouml.org/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Business_Machineshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOShttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_compatiblehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act

formats and protocols (17 USC 1201(f)), but judges in key cases have ignored this law,

since it is acceptable to circumvent restrictions for use, but not for access.

The Samba software, which allows systems that are not running Microsoft Windows

systems to share files with systems that are, is a classic example of software reverse

engineering, since the Samba project had to reverse-engineer unpublished information

about how Windows file sharing worked, so that non-Windows computers could emulate

it. The WINE project does the same thing for the Windows API, and OpenOffice.org is

one party doing this for the Microsoft Office file formats.

Reverse engineering of software can be accomplished by various methods. The three

main groups of reverse engineering are: 1) analysis through observation of information

exchange (most prevalent in protocol reverse engineering), 2) disassembly using a

disassembler, and 3) decompilation using a decompiler.

[edit]

Reverse engineering as business research

Reverse engineering is also used by businesses to assess competitors' products. It is used

to analyze, for instance, how a competitor's product works, what it does, who

manufactures it, what components it consists of, estimate costs, identify potential patent

infringement, etc.

Value engineering is a related activity also used by business. It involves deconstructing

and analysing products, but the objective is to find opportunities for cost cutting.

[edit]

Similar tasks

Research of physical

laws is reverse-

engineering the

world.

Black box testing in

software engineering

has a lot in common

with reverse-

engineering, the

tester usually has the

API, but his goals

are to find bugs and

undocumented

features by bashing

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/1201.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samba_softwarehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windowshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WINEhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_APIhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.orghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Officehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disassemblyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disassemblerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decompilationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decompilerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reverse_engineering&action=edit&section=4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reverse_engineering&action=edit&section=5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_lawhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_lawhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_lawhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_box_testinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_engineeringhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/API

the product from

outside.

[edit]

Examples

Jerry can. During

World War II,

British and

American forces

noticed that the

Germans had

gasoline cans with an

excellent design.

They reverse

engineered copies of

those cans. The cans

were popularly

known as Jerry cans.

The Tupolev Tu-4.

During World War

II, a number of

American B-29

bombers on missions

over Japan were

forced to land in the

USSR. The Soviets,

who did not have a

similar strategic

bomber, decided to

copy the B-29.

Within a few years

they had developed

the Tu-4, a near

perfect copy.

[edit]

See also

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reverse_engineering&action=edit&section=6http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_canhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reverse_engineering&action=edit&section=7javascript:fnEmailfriend();

Reverse engineering 101

Portable CMMs and

software make reverse

engineering useful for

modifications, new

designs, and duplicating

parts without drawings.

Robert Pearce

Applications Engineer

Faro Technologies

Lake Mary, Fla.

A portable

CMM

digitally

captures the

position of

the turbine

blade, root,

and shaft

surfaces. In

this case, a

measuring

pattern

should

follow

concentric

circles

around the

hub. A

completed

image can

be

manipulated

by various

CAD

programs to

add

surfaces to

the image,

measure

uniformity

of

individual

blades, or

even test

flow

properties

in a

simulation

program.

Pro

duc

tio

n

equ

ip

me

nt

and

line

s

can

be

fin

e-

tun

ed

afte

r

cap

turi

ng

crit

ical

di

me

nsi

ons

usi

ng

rev

ers

e-

eng

ine

eri

ng

tec

hni

que

s.

In

this

cas

e, a

las

er

trac

ker

,

tem

por

aril

y

in

the

cen

ter

of

the

pro

duc

tio

n

line

,

can

me

asu

re

to

any

spo

t

on

the

ma

chi

ne.

Las

er-

trac

kin

g

dev

ice

s

suc

h

as

this

one

hav

e a

ran

ge

of

230

ft

wit

h

up

to

0.

001

-in.

acc

ura

cy.

Th

e

bes

t

app

roa

ch

to

dig

itiz

ing

a

co

mp

lex

sha

pe

is

to

div

ide

it

int

o

sim

ple

zon

es.

Zo

nes

1

to

5

and

7

wo

uld

be

sca

nne

d

usi

ng

a

par

alle

l-

pla

ne

tec

hni

que

.

Zo

ne

6

wo

uld

be

sca

nne

d

wit

h a

3D

han

d-

sca

n

met

hod

to

co

mp

lete

ly

cap

tur

e

the

fill

et

rad

ius.

If

you

can

mea

sure

an

obje

ct,

you

can

reve

rse

engi

neer

it.

The

key

is

mea

suri

ng

with

suffi

cien

t

accu

racy

to

capt

ure

the

degr

ee

of

deta

il

nece

ssar

y

for a

faith

ful

repr

odu

ctio

n.

The

con

cept

behi

nd

reve

rse

engi

neer

ing

(RE

) is

sim

ple.

First

,

mea

sure

the

obje

ct or

part.

The

n

tran

scri

be

dim

ensi

ons

into

a

digit

al or

CA

Dco

mpa

tible

for

mat

as

an

ima

ge

of

dots

,

stre

ami

ng

line

s, or

wire

fra

mes.

The

ima

ge

can

be

enh

ance

d

for

end

use

by

engi

neer

ing

prog

ram

s

that

deal

with

surf

acin

g,

stres

s

anal

ysis,

hum

an

fact

ors,

ergo

nom

ics,

plan

t

layo

ut,

or

prod

uct

flow

.

Sev

eral

exa

mpl

es

of

reve

rse

engi

neer

ing

sho

w

its

usef

ulne

ss.

For

inst

ance

,

engi

neer

s in

a

steel

mill

nee

ded

to

repl

ace

an

agin

g

7,50

0-hp

mot

or.

The

prob

lem:

The

new

mot

or

wou

ld

not

fit

on

the

old

mou

nt.

Rev

erse

engi

neer

ing

let

engi

neer

s

desi

gn

an

ada

pter

so

the

old

mou

nt

coul

d

acce

pt

the

new

mot

or.

RE

also

recr

eate

s

dra

win

gs

for

old

part

s.

For

exa

mpl

e, a

blad

e on

the

imp

eller

of

an

air

com

pres

sor

brok

e off

after

year

s of

serv

ice.

But

the

com

pres

sor

man

ufac

ture

r

aske

d

for

eigh

t

mon

ths

to

mak

e a

new

one.

Plan

t

engi

neer

s

deci

ded

to

reve

rse

engi

neer

a

new

one

fro

m

the

orig

inal,

and

mea

sure

d

the

dim

ensi

ons

to

digit

ally

capt

ure

blad

e

loca

tion

s.

Shaf

t

and

bear

ing

dim

ensi

ons

wer

e

also

reco

rded

.

This

data

was

load

ed

into

a

CA

M

prog

ram

to

gen

erat

e a

mac

hini

ng

plan

.

The

new

imp

eller

was

mill

ed

fro

m

an

alu

min

um

blan

k

with

the

toug

hnes

s

and

corr

osio

n

resis

tanc

e at

least

equ

al to

the

orig

inal.

Fro

m

start

to

finis

h,

the

proj

ect

took

only

thre

e

wee

ks.

Too

l

mak

ing

and

prod

uct

testi

ng

also

ben

efit

fro

m

reve

rse

engi

neer

ing.

Usi

ng a

phy

sical

mod

el,

dim

ensi

ons

can

be

take

n to

crea

te

ever

ythi

ng

fro

m

mol

ds

to

fixt

ures

for

robo

tic

wel

ders

.

The

sam

e

proc

ess

is

used

to

adju

st

tooli

ng

to

dial-

in

spec

ifica

tion

s.

For

com

plex

auto

moti

ve

asse

mbli

es,

fabr

icat

ors

hav

e

cut

alm

ost a

year

off

the

time

to

qual

ify

so-

call

ed

first

-

artic

le

part

s.

A

part

recr

eate

d in

CA

D

can

also

bec

ome

a

test

obje

ct.

For

inst

ance

, the

digit

al

part

can

be

stres

s

anal

yze

d,

chec

ked

for

flui

d

flow

,

and

repr

odu

ced

on

rapi

d-

prot

otyp

ing

equi

pme

nt

for

ergo

nom

ic

stud

ies.

In

the

past,

mea

suri

ng a

com

plex

shap

e

requ

ired

nov

el

tech

niqu

es.

One

was

stic

k

buil

ding

.

Poin

ts

on

an

obje

ct

wer

e

mea

sure

d

usin

g

cali

pers

,

rule

s, or

dept

h

gag

es

and

a

mod

el

was

built

with

stic

ks,

each

repr

esen

ting

an

indi

vidu

al

mea

sure

men

t.

Mo

del

accu

racy

dep

end

ed

entir

ely

on

the

skill

of

the

mod

el

mak

er

and

the

proc

ess

usua

lly

requ

ired

wee

ks

to

get

righ

t.

Eve

ntua

lly,

engi

neer

s

beg

an

usin

g

con

vent

iona

l

CM

Ms

to

digit

ally

capt

ure

obje

cts.

Acc

urac

y

grea

tly

imp

rove

d

but

the

proc

ess

rem

aine

d

fairl

y

slo

w

beca

use

the

CM

M

had

to

be

prog

ram

med

for

each

diff

eren

t

shap

e.

RE's

tool

toda

y is

a

devi

ce

orig

inall

y

dev

elop

ed

for

qual

ity-

assu

ranc

e

dep

artm

ents

to

mak

e

fast,

inpr

oces

s

qual

ity

chec

ks.

The

port

able

CM

M is

base

d on

an

artic

ulati

ng

arm,

with

joint

s

hou

sing

opti

cal

enc

oder

s.

The

y

repr

odu

ce

the

X-Y-

Z

loca

tion

and

I-J-

K

orie

ntati

on

of a

styl

us

to

an

accu

racy

of

up

to0

.000

2 in.

The

arm

mov

es

freel

y

with

in a

sphe

re

defi

ned

by

its

own

reac

h. It

capt

ures

data

rapi

dly,

with

a

mea

suri

ng

pote

ntial

for

hun

dred

s of

poin

ts

per

min

ute.

The

arm

reco

rds

mea

sure

men

ts as

indi

vidu

al

poin

ts or

stre

ami

ng

line

s for

CA

D-

com

pati

ble

soft

war

e.

Soft

war

e for

port

able

CM

Ms

also

sim

plifi

es

data

gath

erin

g.

Mos

t

part

s are

com

pose

d of

pris

mati

c

shap

es

such

as

arcs,

circl

es,

sphe

res,

and

rods

.

Use

rs

spec

ify a

stan

dard

shap

e

fro

m a

men

u,

mea

sure

seve

ral

poin

ts,

and

let

the

soft

war

e

com

plet

e

the

shap

e.

Non

pris

mati

c

shap

es

can

be

digit

ized

free

han

d, or

by

usin

g

one

of

seve

ral

"loc

ked-

plan

e"

scan

tech

niqu

es in

whi

ch a

part

is

trac

ed

and

the

soft

war

e

secti

ons

the

trac

e as

para

llel

plan

es,

radi

al

secti

ons,

or

con

cent

ric

circl

es.

Alth

oug

h

the

soft

war

e is

not

inte

nde

d as

a

desi

gn

med

ium,

it

prov

ides

way

s to

man

ipul

ate

ima

ges

by

reve

rsin

g,

dou

blin

g, or

repo

sitio

ning

the

m.

Wh

en a

part

is

sym

metr

ical,

stan

dard

prac

tice

is to

digit

ize

half,

then

dupl

icat

e

and

reve

rse

or

mirr

or it

in

soft

war

e,

and

join

the

two

halv

es.

An

auto

moti

ve

mod

el

sho

p

uses

the

tech

niqu

e to

cut

its

digit

izin

g

wor

k in

half.

It

digit

izes

one

fend

er

then

uses

the

soft

war

e to

crea

te

the

mirr

or

ima

ge.

A

FE

W

AP

PL

IC

AT

IO

NS

FO

R

RE

VE

RS

E

EN

GI

NE

ER

IN

G

EN

D

US

E

OF

IM

AG

E

TY

PI

CA

L

FO

R

M

AT

CO

M

M

ON

SO

FT

W

AR

E

PA

CK

AG

ES

To

oli

ng

Wi

re

fra

me

(lo

w-

den

sity

ima

ges

)

Pol

ygo

nal

sha

pes

(hi

gh-

CA

M

soft

war

e

and

NC

pro

gra

ms

den

sity

ima

ges

)

Mo

ldi

ng

Wi

re

fra

me

(lo

w

den

sity

)

Pol

ygo

nal

sha

pes

(hi

gh

den

sity

)

CA

M

soft

war

e

NC

pro

gra

ms

Sol

id-

mo

deli

ng

soft

war

e

Mo

ld-

filli

ng

sim

ulat

ors

Dig

ital

mo

deli

ng

Wi

re

fra

me

Pol

ygo

nal

sha

pes

CA

D

soft

war

e

Sur

faci

ng

pro

gra

ms

Re

nde

rin

g

soft

war

e

(for

pre

cis

e

vis

ual

rec

reat

ion

s)

Sol

id-

mo

deli

ng

soft

war

e

Pro

tot

ype

test

ing

Pol

ygo

nal

sha

pes

CF

D

soft

war

e

Ra

pid

-

pro

tot

ypi

ng

soft

war

e

FE

A

soft

war

e

Erg

ono

mic

s

Wi

re-

fra

me

sha

Sur

faci

ng

soft

war

pes e

Ext

ern

al

ren

der

ing

soft

war

e

Hu

ma

n-

fact

ors

soft

war

e

Aft

er

cap

turi

ng

a

bas

ic

ima

ge

by

a

por

tabl

e

C

M

M,

eng

ine

eri

ng

pro

gra

ms

tra

nsf

or

m

the

ima

ge

int

o

mo

re

use

ful

sha

pes

. A

few

co

mp

atib

le

for

mat

s

incl

ude

CA

M2

Me

asu

re

X,

Cat

ia,

Pro

/E,

ST

EP,

and

VD

A.

Where Reverse Engineering Makes Sense

RE works well in:

Design, by

adapting a

structure to a

mating surface and

to compress the

time-to-market

cycles.

Development, by

rapid prototyping

and prototype

testing, for

ergonomic, flow

testing, or other

evaluations.

Tool making, by

reducing the time

required to

develop tooling

and improve tool

accuracy.

Repair, by creating

new parts from

old, fractured, or

worn originals.

Fabrication, by

creating elements

of

materialhandling

systems or other

processes.

Manufacturing, by

developing one-off

pieces of

equipment or

structures.