Editor's Pick: New reverse engineering software

This week at RAPID + TCT 21 Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence introduces REcreate, a new software solution for turning 3D data from a variety of sources into a model suitable for further design work or 3D printing. 

Hexagon says REcreate can import mesh, solid, surface, or point cloud data from a variety of software products or industry standard file formats. Such flexibility, the company says, makes it an ideal starting point for reverse engineering. 

“Our goal was to build a new reverse engineering software application focused on ease of use to handle dense point clouds from scanning devices,” says Ken Woodbine, senior portfolio manager for Metrology Software at Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division. “Interoperability was also at the top of our list.” 

The company says REcreate was designed to remove the complexity involved in building airtight models for additive or subtractive manufacturing. Original equipment manufacturers and design engineers can reconstruct legacy products, or develop new products from existing parts or hand-built prototypes. In regular use, REcreate offers a way to import scan data to create CAD models for parts that have no affiliated CAD model. Hexagon says REcreate is also suited for updating existing CAD models to reflect changes that occurred in the manufacturing or prototyping process. The model can then become part of the digital thread environment for linking data collection with reverse engineering and manufacturing. 

For U.S. customers, the product is also available directly from Hexagon via its MYCARE customer hub. 

REcreate was designed to remove the complexity involved in building airtight models for additive or subtractive manufacturing. Image courtesy of Hexagon.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.