C. Werner Dankwort – författare

Looking at modern industrial products, one can recognize a variety of different complex shapes. All these products are not only designed, they are styled. Everybody knows about the importance of styling, if the product is a car, but today even "simple" consumer appliances do not only have to fulfil their function, they must also look nice. In addition, even purely technical products like turbines or valves are designed with very complex shapes to make them work more efficiently. Thus, optimising the shape of products is one of the key factors in the process chain of development. Today, there are various CAx-systems, which have evolved to be the basic tools for design, calculation, simulation and manufacturing in almost all kinds of industrial environments, but the improvement of the product''s shape is -in most cases -done manu­ ally on the physical model. This break in the CAD information flow can be overcome with REVERSE ENGINEERING techniques reconstructing the shape-describing CAD surfaces (Bezier-, NURBS-surfaces or others) from the modified physical model. nd Therefore the 2 Workshop on current CAx-problems was dedicated to REVERSE ENGINEERING. During the workshop were presented • the newest research results of surface reconstruction for a given set of points • the methods and tools for problems.in Reverse Engineering of some of the most important CAD vendors (Holometric Technology, IBM/Dassault, ICEM, Imageware, Matra Data­ vision, Tebis). Additionally, structural aspects in Reverse Engineering, possible future developments and new research directions were discussed.

In addition to the classical needs, competition on the global market requires from industry product innovations: quality, time to market, reduction of costs (Q,T,C). The modern process networks of product development and manufacturing passing the borders of countries and including several companies could not work without an extensive use of information technology. This is going far beyond the former idea of Computer Aided Design. Thus the 3''d Workshop on Current CAx-Problems did not focus on functionalities or methods aiding design like in the first two workshops but on "Digital Products - Living Data is the Future": problems of the virtual simulation of the entire industrial process, starting with the development of a product and covering the complete life cycle. The workshop aimed at bringing together the three groups: industry (mainly automotive manufacturers), system suppliers, and fundamental research. During the workshop, communication between these three groups had to be intensified, and especially also among competing companies of the same branch to pave the way for concerted actions, which are essential for all in the future.

Looking at modern industrial products, one can recognize a variety of different complex shapes. All these products are not only designed, they are styled. Everybody knows about the importance of styling, if the product is a car, but today even "simple" consumer appliances do not only have to fulfil their function, they must also look nice. In addition, even purely technical products like turbines or valves are designed with very complex shapes to make them work more efficiently. Thus, optimising the shape of products is one of the key factors in the process chain of development. Today, there are various CAx-systems, which have evolved to be the basic tools for design, calculation, simulation and manufacturing in almost all kinds of industrial environments, but the improvement of the product's shape is -in most cases -done manu­ ally on the physical model. This break in the CAD information flow can be overcome with REVERSE ENGINEERING techniques reconstructing the shape-describing CAD surfaces (Bezier-, NURBS-surfaces or others) from the modified physical model. nd Therefore the 2 Workshop on current CAx-problems was dedicated to REVERSE ENGINEERING. During the workshop were presented • the newest research results of surface reconstruction for a given set of points • the methods and tools for problems.in Reverse Engineering of some of the most important CAD vendors (Holometric Technology, IBM/Dassault, ICEM, Imageware, Matra Data­ vision, Tebis). Additionally, structural aspects in Reverse Engineering, possible future developments and new research directions were discussed.