GKS Inspection Services has been a leading provider of dimensional inspection, 3-D laser scanning, terrestrial scanning, and CT scanning services for more than 25 years. The company’s metrologists and engineers are experienced in the automotive, defense, electronics, and many other manufacturing industries. One issue that has been common in reverse engineering scanning projects for all industries over the years is making sure that customers know exactly what type of computer-aided design (CAD) file deliverable they want from GKS based on what they will be doing with the data and their budget.

Sometimes customers have a mistaken perception that 3-D laser scanning means placing their part in a magic scanning box, pressing a button, and presto, a perfect 360° parametric model emerges, ready to be used in any application regarding CAD, computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE), or rapid prototyping. Not so, says Larry Carlberg, laser design and GKS sales manager. “The results of laser scanning run along a continuum of relatively simple to extremely complex model formats. Cost, time, and level of communication required increase along with the complexity of the results desired. At GKS we always ask customers what they will be doing with their CAD files, so we can provide them with the correct level of complexity and file format,” he adds.

 …