Unfortunately, in the real world, neither of the requirements can normally be met to a high enough standard. Most models produced by hand will contain small imperfections, while existing components frequently include defects, for example sink marks in plastic mouldings, or minor damage. Similarly, most digitised data will include a small number of rogue points that will inhibit the generation of smooth surfaces. As a result, a large amount of time-consuming editing is required before surfaces can be produced of the required quality. To overcome these problems, the new release of Delcam s CopyCAD contains a range of unique sculpting tools that allow the user to interact directly with the model and so smooth any problem areas both quickly and easily.
Options are available to either add or subtract material.
In each case, the strength of the operation can be adjusted to give a coarse or fine effect. Another common problem comes when trying to generate surfaces with a high degree of curvature from sparse data. Frequently, the surfaces will be able to be produced within the tolerance required but will be faceted, rather than smoothly curved. The new version of CopyCAD includes an additional option to add intermediate points in such areas and so produce a more even result. Apart from problems with the quality of the results, the other factor discouraging companies from using reverse engineering is the complexity of the software.