Development of an integrated reverse engineering system

摘要

This paper describes the development of a customised reverse engineering system in which a 3D digitiser (MicroScribe-3DX) has been integrated with a computer-aided design (CAD) system (Pro/ENGINEER). The application programme written in C language enables a real-time input from the digitiser to Pro/ENGINEER. Two Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) were used: the MicroScribe-3D Software Development Kit (SDK) and Pro/TOOLKIT. The former allows the user to develop an integrated system through intuitive and high-level function calls to the digitiser. The latter enables a user to customise a Pro/ENGINEER environment. This system offers an intuitive and user-friendly means for reverse engineering. It also helps to shorten the whole reverse engineering process. This is because the digitised data can be displayed and edited in real time, so that early identification and exclusion of the undesired and incorrect data are made possible.