Reverse engineering: A methodology for supporting smart free - form digitalization

Reverse engineering is a technology that generates a virtual representation of an existing part based on point data acquisition with measuring techniques. Different technologies could be employed to obtain a virtual representation of a physical model, but the use of a solution (3D scanner) rather than another, could provide significant different results because the available 3D scanners are characterised by different performances (resolution, accuracy, ...). The selection of the right 3D scanner could guarantee an improvement in the points acquisition precision, but it could not assure an efficient points distribution in term of number and locations. These two parameters make part of the acquisition strategy, that should provide a consistent sampling plan. For this reason this paper wants to propose a methodology to define a selectively sampling plan, with grid dimensions related with the complexity of the local surface region analyzed.