Elsevier

Computer-Aided Design

Volume 29, Issue 4, April 1997, Pages 255-268
Computer-Aided Design

Reverse engineering of geometric models—an introduction

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-4485(96)00054-1Get rights and content

Abstract

In many areas of industry, it is desirable to create geometric models of existing objects for which no such model is available. This paper reviews the process of reverse engineering of shapes. After identifying the purpose of reverse engineering and the main application areas, the most important algorithmic steps are outlined and various reconstruction strategies are presented. Pros and cons of various data acquisition techniques are described with related problems of boundary representation model construction. Specific issues addressed include characterization of geometric models and related surface representations, segmentation and surface fitting for simple and free-form shapes, multiple view combination and creating consistent and accurate B-rep models. The limitations of currently known solutions are also described, and we point out areas in which further work is required before reverse engineering of shape becomes a practical, widely-available engineering tool.

References (66)

  • DR Smith et al.

    Autonomous scene description with range imagery

    CVGIP

    (1985)
  • IA Stroud

    Boundary modelling with special representations

    Computer-Aided Design

    (1994)
  • P Veron et al.

    Static polyhedron simplification using error measurements

    Computer-Aided Design

    (1997)
  • J Vida et al.

    A survey of blending methods that use parametric surfaces

    Computer-Aided Design

    (1994)
  • YL Xiong

    Computer aided measurement of profile errror of complex surfaces and curves: theory and algorithm

    International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacturing

    (1990)
  • 3D Scanners, London, UK, Private communication,...
  • PJ Besl et al.

    Three dimensional object recognition

    ACM Computing Surveys

    (1985)
  • PJ Besl et al.

    Segmentation through variable-order surface fitting

    IEEE PAMI

    (1988)
  • PJ Besl et al.

    A method for registration of 3D shapes

    IEEE PAMI

    (1992)
  • RM Bolle et al.

    On three-dimensional surface reconstruction methods

    IEEE PAMI

    (1991)
  • G Celniker et al.

    Deformable curve and surface finite elements for free-form shape design

  • U Dietz

    Erzeugung glatter Flächen aus Meβpunkten

  • M Eck et al.

    Automatic reconstruction of B-spline surfaces of arbitrary topological type

  • M Eck et al.

    Multiresolution analysis of arbitrary meshes

  • H Edelsbrunner et al.

    Three-dimensional alpha shapes

    ACM TOG

    (1994)
  • G Farin
  • G Farin et al.

    Curvature and fairness of curves and surfaces

    IEEE CGA

    (1989)
  • OD Faugeras et al.

    Segmentation of range data into planar and quadric patches

  • RB Fisher

    Best-first and ten other variations of the interpretation-tree model matching algorithm

    Dept of AI, University of Edinburgh, Research Paper 717

    (1994)
  • Fisher, R B ‘Personal communication’...
  • AW Fitzgibbon et al.

    Automatic acquisition of cad models from multiple range views

  • G Greiner

    Variational design and fairing of spline surfaces

  • IJ Grimstead et al.

    Creating solid models from single 2D sketches

  • Cited by (1049)

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text