Edge Detection in Reverse Engineering Using a Virtual CMM

This paper describes a method to reconstruct edges, i.e. the intersection curves of adjacent non-tangent surfaces, from point clouds. The method is quick, easy to use and provides accurate results. It does not rely on extending surface patches that were individually fitted to the segments of the point data. Only edges of C¹ discontinuity and C⁰ continuity are considered. The method samples the point cloud by simulating a co-ordinate measurement machine (CMM). The edge detection procedure is semi-automatic and only requires a few simple inputs from the user. The technique can also be implemented as a measurement strategy on a CMM.