Modeler

Polygonal Modeling

The first step in a reverse-engineering workflow consists in transforming digitized point clouds into surface-based polygonal models, also called meshes. Polygonal models are more compact, more accurate, and less noisy than raw point clouds and are directly handled by industrial applications such as milling, 3D printing, and aerodynamic simulation.

Create polygonal models of digitized parts in real time

Adopt effective scanning methods that ensure quality and precision with real-time quality meshing technology.

Repair and optimize imperfectly digitized geometry

Fill holes, smooth and rebuild surfaces, clean boundaries, recover sharp edges, make surfaces watertight, and more.

Apply CAD operations to polygonal models

Extrude boundaries, offset surfaces, reconstruct fillets, perform Boolean operations with CAD models, and more.

Surface Modeling

NURBS surfaces are lightweight representations of simple features and organic shapes commonly used to replicate and transfer polygonal surfaces built from point cloud data to CAD/CAM software. PolyWorks|Modeler™ offers an intuitive surfacing workflow that cleverly combines interactive curve creation with a next-generation automatic surfacing technology to generate editable CAD-friendly models for your simulation, machining, and design applications.

Intuitive workflow

Create meaningful curves on polygonal surfaces 

Control the geometric description of critical part features, such as boundaries, sharp edges, and fillet tangents, by interactively creating and fitting curves on polygonal surfaces.

Create surface patches from curves automatically

Intersect curves automatically and form 4-sided or N-sided trimmed surface patches that will control the fitting of a continuous network of NURBS surfaces.

Automate the creation of curves and surface patches

Model an entire polygonal surface with a single click while controlling the description of curves that are critical for your application, such as symmetry lines, part boundaries, and subtle feature lines.

Highly usable surfaces

Create CAD-friendly models

Ensure that your reverse-engineered models are editable within CAD/CAM applications by automatically bounding surface patches with continuous curves that naturally describe the part’s characteristics.

Produce lighter models for downstream applications

Minimize the number of surface patches and improve fitting accuracy and patch continuity by automatically adapting the patch size and aspect ratio to the part’s surface curvature.

Tailor the surface fitting results to your needs

Choose the right balance between accuracy and smoothness while fitting NURBS surfaces, and enjoy our powerful two-step fitting process and blend-to-CAD technology.

Solid Modeling

A fundamental building block in a solid modeling workflow is the parametric 2D sketch. It is used to create solid base features by performing Extrude, Revolve, Sweep, and Loft operations. PolyWorks|Modeler optimizes the extraction of geometric entities on digitized polygonal models to create parametric 2D sketches that serve as the starting point in your CAD solution for generating parametric, associative, and fully editable solid 3D CAD models.

Create sketches from digitized models

Define sketch planes from standard or user-defined planes, and extract outlines by slicing cross-sections of a polygonal model or extracting its silhouette edge.

Create sketch entities and dimensions

Fit parametric sketch entities (arcs, lines, circles, and splines) to the sketch outline, and add dimensions and relations as constraints for the entities.

Transfer PolyWorks sketches to your CAD solution

Import PolyWorks|Modeler's parametric sketches within your feature-based solid CAD modeler using add-ins for CATIA, NX, Creo, SolidWorks, and Inventor.