Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing

5Computer Aided Reverse Engineering

5.1 Introduction

Engineering involves designing, manufacturing, assembling, and system operations. At its highest abstract level, engineering can be classified into forward engineering (FE) and reverse engineering (RE). On the one hand, forward engineering is rather traditional and the engineering design process begins with a high‐level conceptual design, gradually reduces to low‐level detail designs, and finally to physical implementation. On the other hand, RE begins with examination of physical objects at a low level and gradually moves up to a high‐level virtual representation of a product model with embedded knowledge. RE aims to develop a virtual computer model for an existing physical part, component, ...