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Reverse Engineering

Professional Outsourced Reverse Engineering Services

Reverse engineering is the process of taking an existing part or assembly, and converting it into a 3D CAD file. Traditional reverse engineering involves using calipers to measure the existing part, making a hand-drawn sketch in a notebook, and then drawing it by hand on your CAD software of choice. Unfortunately, this process wastes a lot of time and comes with too much room for error. What happens if you read the calipers wrong, write the wrong number down, or type the wrong number in CAD? Any of these simple (and common) mistakes and completely ruin your model, and you won’t realize it until it’s too late.

Reverse engineering is a must-have for many engineering companies. Let’s say you have a really old motor mount, used on your legacy product line. You just unveiled a new machine, but you need the motor mount to be updated. Instead of spending days measuring and designing a new one, you can bring in our team at CAD/CAM Services, and we’ll have it done within hours.

People use reverse engineering to make new OEM-equivalent parts for companies that don’t exist anymore, to update really old parts that don’t have documentation, or to quickly and accurately change an existing assembly.

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What Are Reverse Engineering Services?

What Are Reverse Engineering Services?

Reverse engineering services at CAD/CAM Services involve paying our team to handle your reverse engineering needs. Our team uses advanced (and very expensive) 3D scanners to create a “point cloud”, which is basically a ton of points in 3D space. We then convert this point cloud into a functional CAD file, with all of the information you need, like material choices.

Our services take a fraction of the time, and they are much more reliable than traditional reverse engineering efforts. We never have to touch a caliper or write anything down, we just use a handheld 3D scanner, move it around your object, and then convert it into a high-quality 3D CAD file.

Why Reverse Engineering Services Matters

Any company can claim to deliver high-quality reverse engineering services, but many of them fall short. Other outsourced CAD companies will try to rush the process and make mistakes along the way. The worst part? You won’t notice these mistakes until you get the parts back from the machine shop, months and thousands of dollars later.

Instead, a professional-quality reverse engineering outsourced company like CAD/CAM Services can deliver exceptional quality, commit to aggressive timelines, and achieve precision you won’t find elsewhere. Our workflow is so optimized that we have very little room for error, leading to better 3D CAD files with fewer mistakes.

Why Reverse Engineering Services Matters

Reverse engineering is one of our most sought-after services at CAD/CAM Services. Why do people continue doing business with us, and why are we the go-to for many company’s reverse engineering needs? There are so many benefits to mention:

Faster turnarounds.

First and foremost, our services are faster than our competitors, and we don’t sacrifice any quality along the way. We want you to get faster results that you can rely on.

Leverage our expensive 3D scanner inventory.

With over $5 million in 3D scanners, we bought the expensive scanners so that you don’t have to. For instance, you can leverage our $700,000 CT scanner to get great resolution on your reverse-engineered parts.

Our commitment to quality.

Quality is incredibly important to us, and it’s why we have so many different 3D scanners to start with. With our top-of-the-line scanners, we can hit accuracies as low as 7 microns, which results in a higher-quality CAD file and more precision.

Expertise you won’t find elsewhere.

It’s hard to find an outsourced CAD company that also offers 3D scanning to the same degree we do. We aren’t just scanners by trade, we have a deep understanding of engineering, which often comes in handy. Our experience will speak for itself when we help with your next project.

One-stop shop for engineering and CAD.

With dozens of services offered at CAD/CAM Services, we can handle your full project under one roof. With fewer hand-offs between companies, there is going to be less confusion and time wasted during your project.

What Goes into Reverse Engineering Services from CAD/CAM Services?

What Goes into Reverse Engineering Services from CAD/CAM Services?

Our reverse engineering services revolve around the needs of your project. We will have a consultation meeting that highlights what you’re looking for and what you specifically need. Our engineers will come out with our expensive 3D scanners and start putting together a point cloud. Next, we’ll optimize the point cloud and create a feature-rich 3D CAD file.

With that file, we can cut manufacturing drawings and optimize every sheet to use design for manufacturability (DFM) best practices. These extra steps will help a lot when it comes time to manufacture the new part.

Making a 3D scan of an object is just the tip of the iceberg. What about tolerancing, dimensioning, and designing for manufacturing? Something as simple as changing the datum of a part can triple the cost of manufacturing. With our reverse engineering services, you can leverage our engineering expertise to optimize every 3D scan, getting it ready for faster and more affordable manufacturing.

Our work goes through peer reviews and quality checks to make sure you always get CAD Perfect® files. We also include free revisions within most contracts, making sure you don’t waste any time or money with us.

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Our Reverse Engineering Services Include:

  • 3D Scanning and Point Cloud Generation
  • Model Clean-Up and Optimization
  • Design for Manufacturing (DFM) Best Practices
  • Engineering Simulation, such as FEA, Dynamic, and Thermal
  • Creating 2D Manufacturing Drawings
  • And Much More (Including Custom Services)
Our Reverse Engineering Services Include:
More About Reverse Engineering Services‍

More About Reverse Engineering Services‍

Reverse engineering has two terms that really matter, “resolution” and “accuracy”. In other industries, these might mean the same thing, but our 3D scanning experts are here to assure you that they’re not. 

The resolution of our 3D scanners will determine how large or small of a feature the scanner can pick up. One scanner will find a tiny crack in your part, while another scanner doesn’t. Higher-resolution scanners can find smaller details and successfully scan smaller parts.

The accuracy of any 3D scanner describes how close the 3D CAD file will be to the scanned image. Very-high resolution is also called “metrology-grade 3D scanners”, and we have plenty of those 3D scanners in-house. High-accuracy scanners might take longer to take a full scan, but the resulting 3D CAD file will be much more representative of the actual part.

For instance, our Artec Micro scanner has a resolution of 0.029mm and an accuracy as low as 0.01mm. This means it can scan tiny parts really accurately, but can’t handle big parts. 

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Reach out to our 3D scanning experts today to get the best results for your next reverse engineering project. Our team has handled the reverse engineering of small bolts, entire F-35 fighter jets, and everything in between. Allow us to get you more accurate, faster, and more reliable reverse-engineered 3D CAD models today.

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FAQ’s

Reverse Engineering FAQs
What is the average price for Reverse Engineering?

It all depends on the part’s complexity, size and structure.

What do you guys need to provide me with accurate pricing?

We need to know whether you need your parts to be scanned by us. Or many times we can work with 3D scans provided by third-party companies.  The quality of the scan is everything in our business. Anyway, we strongly advise you to use us for both the scanning and the CAD conversion aspects.  That way, we can control the quality. Sometimes we receive poor quality scans which make it impossible to create truly Cad Perfect™ models for you.  By all means, send us a couple of even cell phone photos, and the rough size of the object.  Most of the time, this will provide us enough information to provide a real bid.

The price depends on the part complexity, size, as well as the target file parametres. We need to know whether you need full parametric models, and your desired accuracy. If you tell us the purpose of reverse-engineered models, we can often provide you with possible solutions. The target CAD software may change the price as well. This includes sophisticated Workstation add-on products such as Composites, Catia electrical wiring, mold design, and others.

What is the quality of reverse-engineered parts?

We can provide ±.005” aerospace quality for every model. CT scanned parts can have even higher precision up to ±.001”.

3D Scanning FAQs
How much does scanning services cost?

It depends on the complexity of the scanned model and material properties. As, for example, it may be much more complicated to properly scan an object with a reflective surface, than a non-reflective surface. It also depends on three main factors:

  1. the physical size of your part
  2. the required scanning resolution
  3. if industrial CT or metallurgy scanning is needed

Simple quick cell phone photos are worth a thousand words to us. To know for sure you can request a quote. It is of course, free – and treated as if an NDA is already in place.

Some averages:

  • The typical 3D scan is somewhere around $200-400 per part.
  • Tomographic (CT) scanning is $600-900 per part.

Because so much of our business is Aerospace related, our scanning – and the completed CAD file HAS to be within ±.005” anywhere on that part, we never use consumer-grade scanners. The scanners we use start at $25,000 and go up to $700,000 (CT) per scanner.

At any given time, we have in excess of $ 5 million just in scanning hardware we use. In addition, a hidden factor of scanning on any system is the assembly and clean up of any scan. The rule of thumb is a 2-1 ratio. So even with our experienced scanning staff, if we spend one-hour scanning; we will then spend an additional two hours of clean up and assembly before our CAD group gets the Point Cloud file to simulate or reverse engineer.

What is the Point Cloud/Mesh/3D Scan?

A point cloud is thousands if not millions of data points located in space by X, Y, Z coordinates. Images of this nature are often captured with Faro Focus or Artec scanners that specialize in large-area scanning.  Most likely you obtain building and territory plans in this file format.

A polygon mesh is a set of triangles located in the same manner. These scans are obtained with Artec, Creaform, Enscan and other handheld scanners. Parts and reverse engineering device scans are usually polygon meshes.

What types of scanners do you use?
  • Faro Arm – Very good for most parts, fast and accurate
  • Turntable scanners – high accuracy, high detail, fast scanning. Great for smaller parts.
  • Portable handheld – may be favorable for some larger parts – if not a tripod-mounted scanner.
  • Long Range – these mount on a tripod, and are intended to scan buildings, plants, and other larger sized projects.
  • Industrial CT scanners – incredibly expensive, but they offer two main benefits – the ability to inside an object (think of a void in a solid object), and their accuracy.  At this level, we are often in the ±.001” – ±.002” range, and often used in metrology scanning.

Which scanner models do you use?
How accurate is 3D scanning?

The scanners we use are as accurate as the industry offers – from anybody at any cost. We use Faro and Artec 3D scanners, in addition to Faro CMM type arms, including the Surveyor tables. Depending on what scanner we use:

  • CT scanners – 4 to 400µm/voxel resolution
  • Artec Portable scanners high accuracy (0.03 – 0.05mm)
  • Artec Portable scanners high resolution (up to 0.15mm)
  • Our CyberGage 360 – generates highly precise full 360 degrees automated scan with accuracy NIST traceable to approximately 7 microns
  • The CyberGage 360 has a system repeatability of ±.005mm.
3D Modeling FAQs
How do you bill 3D CAD services tasks?

Per hour. Hourly rate depends on what CAD software used and typically starts at $75 per hour.  In general, to make this process safer for you, we often provide you a fixed not to exceed the cost as well.  That way, you are protected from an open-ended PO. However, the reality is our fees are based on time. In addition, services in say Catia or NX are more expensive than say Solidworks. Or, simulation services are commonly done by real engineers.

What do you need to give me accurate pricing?

First of all, we need to know the target CAD system and whether you have an existing  template, or set of CAD standards for this project.

The main question is the overall complexity. As each part and assembly consists of different features and elements the best way is to provide us with an example.  Again, a picture is worth a thousand words.

If you already have a model and need us to improve it or update it in any way we need to know which dimensions and features are critical and which can be modified to achieve your desired result.  Even a before and after example works very well. We started with x, and got to this CAD file.

We can also offer you better options if you provide us with the purpose of your project (demonstration, 3D printing, FEA Simulation, CNC manufacturing, etc.).  This helps us better refine the task.

How do you check your models?

We create 2D drawings from our 3D models for QC purposes. We follow aerospace standards and deliver ±.005” accuracy models for all projects.  All of our QC is done by a different person than the designer. On Catia work, we often use Q-Checker for Airbus.

What is the minimum price for your 3D modeling services?

We have a minimum order fee $150.

General CAD Questions
How do I send a sample, in order to get a quote?

Fill out our quote form, attach your files, or simply send us an email. Tell everything about your project, like the model purpose.

For smaller files < 15 MB you can simply email them to us.  For something larger, just drop them in any number of drop boxes like Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and others.  Or if you would like, just contact us for a private, hardened link.

It is fine to use most any time of compression such as  *.zip, *.rar, *.tar, *.7z, *.arc, *.LBR, and even *.iso images.

A direct email is [email protected]

We also use a hardened OwnCloud web file sharing platform for unlimited file transfers. We provide unique and very private Web Storage Portals, this also supports file syncing for extreme convenience for you. Because so much of our work is DOD or weapons design work, Security – and confidentiality is very important to us.

Will CAD / CAM Services Sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)?

Yes. NDAs are a common part of our business. All data is yours – not ours, and treated as proprietary data and not for public consumption or use. Probably 70% of our work is under NDA agreements. We can generally get these signed within the day.

What is the estimated delivery time?

It depends on the scope of work:

  • 2D drawings – small quantity, normally 48 hours.  We have several customers where they contract to us, keeping 4-8 drafters busy full time.
  • 3D models – complexity dependent, but smaller jobs in 2-3 days. Some models we have spent months on.  Again, we have several customers where they contract to us, keeping 6-10 3D CAD designers busy full time.

Simple jobs have a lead time of 48 hours. Larger projects are delivered and invoiced weekly.

Did you really own the trademark Cad Perfect™, Cad Perfect CAD Conversions™ and Cad / Cam Services™?

Yes, we did back in 2008. We started using Cad Perfect™ back in the early 1990s because all of our customers wanted only real Cad Perfect™ work. Back then the buzz words were terms like machine ready, or DXF Traceover and others.

The problem is, nobody wanted that. They all wanted drawings and models that they did not have to touch. Everybody wanted drawings just as if they hand redrew the work themselves.

Thus, Cad / Cam Services™ was the first company to start offering ONLY Cad Perfect™ work.

Do you support the PPD-21 Directive?

Yes we do, and have now for several years. In addition, we also support the industry specific plans as well.

Finite Element Analysis FAQs
What is the purpose of FEA?

A Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is a form of non-destructive testing (NDT) that shows how your part reacts to real-world loading events. A common example is running an FEA on a support bracket. The FEA will give results showing how much the bracket deflects, how much reactive force is seen, and the kind of internal stresses the bracket experiences.

FEA results will change dramatically based on the position and angle of the load, how much force is applied, the material properties of the part, and the design of the part itself.

An FEA is used to optimize a part before manufacturing begins. It allows you to find weak points within your part or assembly, and it will predict a failure before you physically make anything. This gives you an opportunity to fine-tune each part to optimize its size, strength, and cost before you start producing it.

What do you need to make an accurate simulation?

The more information we have, the more accurate the simulation results will be. It also depends on what type of simulation you want to run. For a simple FEA, we can run an accurate simulation with just a 3D CAD model and loading/force/pressure information that you want to simulate.

Don’t have a 3D model? Not a problem, our team can make one for you from scratch, and then run an FEA on it.

For a more detailed answer, a well-run FEA will need:

Material properties: What material is the part made out of? We can run different FEAs with different materials to help you pick the right one.

Loading conditions: The size, location, and type of load you want to simulate.

Bonding condition: How is the part held in place? Is it bolted, welded, or just sitting on a tabletop?

A 3D model

For other simulations: Please provide us with all thermal, dynamic, aero, and/or fluid flow information. Feel free to call us and we’ll walk you through what we need.