The reverse engineering steps, particularly for hardware, usually follow this order.
An engineer acquires data, often by disassembling a product and 3D-scanning its parts, which generates digital point clouds of the parts. The engineer may also test the parts to learn more about their design intent. During post-processing, the engineer converts the point clouds into mesh models with reverse engineering software and then manually edits the meshes.
Next, the mesh is converted to a parametric model with solid surfaces, where the engineer can make improvements and dimensional changes. Finally, the engineer reviews the models against the initial scans and may begin the iterative prototyping process.