Engineer at NeoMetrix Reverse Engineers AR-10 Rifle from Scan Data

As an engineer at NeoMetrix Technologies, Ken Hart helps clients improve their current reverse engineering workflow through the use of 3D scanning technology. 3D scanners are efficient at capturing surface measurements of complex parts and the output scan data serves as a guide for creating CAD models.

AR-10 Rifle to be Scanned

Hart recently used Polyga’s new XTract3D software – an add-in for SOLIDWORKS – for the first time to reverse engineer a rifle from 3D scan data to a CAD file. Upon completion of this reverse engineering process, Hart found that the reverse engineering application is easy to pick and learn as you go. When asked about the software’s efficiency, Hart provided:

“Reverse engineering with XTract3D mimics how you would normally design a CAD from a blank screen in SOLIDWORKS, so there’s no new workflow to learn which is a time saver. What’s great about XTract3D is that it doesn’t feel like an add-in for SOLIDWORKS at all. Its reverse engineering tools work harmoniously with native SOLIDWORKS tools, so the experience is seamless. XTract3D allows me to work with large meshes without any lagging or freezing issues. One of the benefits to reverse engineering directly inside SOLIDWORKS is that that CAD model created will have feature tree. This makes it easier to understand design intent of the part when collaborating as a team. Not to mention, it’s easy to make modifications down the road.”

AR-10 3D Scan Data

Although there are companies that simply don’t have the budget to purchase standalone reverse engineering software packages, Hart believes that XTract3D is a great addition for engineers and designers who already use SOLIDWORKS as their CAD modeling package and are looking for an affordable reverse engineering solution. According to Hart, “XTract3D is a great alternative for converting 3D mesh data to CAD because does it at a fraction of the price of other reverse engineering solutions. The price provides accessibility to those who normally wouldn’t be able to reverse engineer using scan data in the past.”

Ken Hart is a Sales Engineer NeoMetrix Technologies, a solutions-based company specializing in the application of high technology solutions for 3D scanning, reverse engineering, 3D printing and rapid prototyping.