**4.5.2** *liveTransfer™* **module of** *Rapidform XOR3*

The *liveTransfer*™ module of *Rapidform XOR3* exports parametric models, directly into major CAD systems, including *SolidWorks* 2006+, Siemens NX 4+, *Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire* 3.0+, *CATIA* V4 and V5 and *AutoCAD*.

A Review on Shape Engineering and Design Parameterization in Reverse Engineering 183

model exported to *Wildfire* 4.0 is problematic, in which numerous issues, such as missing and misinterpretation portion of the section profile, are encountered. In general, parametric solid models created in *Rapidform* can be exported well to *SolidWorks* and *NX*. The export is almost seamless. Although, there were minor issues encountered, such as missing references

The most useful and advanced shape engineering capabilities are offered in specialized, non-CAD software, such as *Geomagic*, *Rapidform*, etc., that are intended to support reverse engineering. Some CAD packages, such as *SolidWorks*, *Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire*, and *CATIA*, offer limited capabilities for shape engineering. In general, capabilities offered in CAD are labor intensive and inferior to specialized codes while dealing with shape

After intensive review and survey (Chang & Chen, 2010), to the authors' knowledge, the best software on the market for reverse engineering is *Geomagic Studio* v.11 and *Rapidform XOR3*. This was determined after a thorough and intensive study, following a set of prescribed criteria including auto surfacing, parametric solid modeling, and software usability. Between the two, *Geomagic* has a slight edge in geometric entity editing, which is critical for auto surfacing. In terms of solid modeling, *Geomagic* stops short at only offering

*Rapidform* is superior in support of solid modeling (in addition to excellent auto surfacing) that goes beyond primitive surface fitting. *Rapidform* offers convenient sketching capabilities that support feature-based modeling. As a result, it often requires less effort yet yielding a much better solid model by interactively recovering solid features embedded in the segmented regions. The interactive approach mainly involves creating or extracting section profiles or guide curves from the polygon mesh, and following CAD-like steps to create

In this chapter, technology that enables 3D shape engineering and design parameterization for reverse engineering was reviewed. Software that offers such capabilities was also evaluated and tested using practical examples. Based on the evaluations, we observed that *Rapidform* is the only viable choice for parametric solid modeling in support of 3D shape engineering and design parameterization. *Rapidform* offers CAD-like capabilities for creating solid features, feature tree for allowing roll back for feature editing, and very good sketching functions. In addition, the *liveTransfer*™ module offers model exporting to mainstream CAD

After research and development in decades, technology that supports 3D shape engineering and design parameterization is matured enough to support general engineering applications. The ideal scenario can now be realized by using software such as *Rapidform* for shape engineering and parameterization, where labor intensive tasks, such as managing point cloud, triangulation, etc., is taken care of in an automated fashion; and design intents

primitive surfaces, such as plane, cylinder, sphere, etc., from segmented regions.

for some datum points, those issues can be fixed very easily.

**5. Discussion** 

engineering.

solid features.

**6. Conclusions** 

systems almost seamlessly.

The *block* example that was fully parameterized in *Rapidform* was first exported to *SolidWorks*. All the solid features were seamlessly exported to *SolidWorks*, except for some datum entities, such as datum points. Since entities such as polygon meshes and segmented regions are not included in *SolidWorks* database, they cannot be exported. As a result, geometric datum features associated with these entities are not exported properly. The dimensions and constraints added to the sketches and solid features in *Rapidform* are exported well, except again for those referenced to entities that are not available in *SolidWorks*. Fortunately, it only requires users to make a few minor changes (such as adding or modifying dimensions or constraints) to bring back a fully parametric solid model in *SolidWorks*. As shown in Fig. 22, the length of the base block was increased and the solid model is rebuilt in *SolidWorks* (Fig. 22b). Similar results were observed in *NX*. However,

Fig. 21. The *block* model explored to *SolidWorks* and *Wildfire*, (a) seventeen features recognized in *Geomagic*, (b) features exported to *SolidWorks* (wireframe), (c) features "piled up" in *SolidWorks*, (d) features exported to *Wildfire* (wireframe), and (e) features "piled up" in *Wildfire* 

Fig. 22. *Block* exported from *Rapidform* to *SolidWorks*, (a) solid model exported to *SolidWorks*, and (b) design change made in *SolidWorks* 

model exported to *Wildfire* 4.0 is problematic, in which numerous issues, such as missing and misinterpretation portion of the section profile, are encountered. In general, parametric solid models created in *Rapidform* can be exported well to *SolidWorks* and *NX*. The export is almost seamless. Although, there were minor issues encountered, such as missing references for some datum points, those issues can be fixed very easily.
