Reverse Engineering and Shape Acquisition Technologies: A Comprehensive Review

Reverse Engineering (RE) provides a route from an existing physical component to a digital model that can support inspection, redesign, reproduction and remanufacture. The reliability of this route depends strongly on the method used to acquire the component geometry, yet the available technologies differ markedly in measurement principle, achievable accuracy, acquisition rate, cost, surface sensitivity and geometric accessibility. This review examines shape-acquisition technologies for component-oriented RE and follows the workflow from geometric capture through point-cloud processing and mesh generation to CAD reconstruction. The literature considered includes photogrammetry, tactile coordinate measuring machines (CMMs), computed tomography (CT), structured-light scanning and laser triangulation, together with developments in automated processing and scan-to-CAD reconstruction. The review considers acquisition and reconstruction as a single engineering workflow, comparing the principal acquisition routes against common practical criteria and relating their performance to the subsequent requirements of CAD reconstruction, including recent automated and AI-assisted approaches. Its principal conceptual contribution is to clarify how acquisition decisions propagate through data quality, reconstruction effort, metrological validation and final model usability, providing a task- and traceability-oriented basis for reverse-engineering workflow selection. The comparative evidence shows that method selection is application-dependent rather than hierarchical. Tactile CMMs provide high metrological confidence but are comparatively slow for dense freeform acquisition. Photogrammetry offers low-cost and scalable capture, although its performance deteriorates on texture-poor and optically difficult surfaces. CT uniquely provides volumetric access to internal geometry but entails substantial equipment, reconstruction and uncertainty-management requirements. Structured-light and laser-triangulation systems provide faster external-surface acquisition, with different sensitivities to surface optical properties and referencing conditions. The review therefore identifies acquisition-method selection and the subsequent conversion of measured data into engineering-ready CAD geometry as the two principal determinants of RE efficiency and reliability.