Creo Reverse Engineering Extension: What can you do with it?

[PatrickBoehm]

Hello,

looking for a reverse Engineering Software for 3D scans I found the reverse Engineering Extension for Creo. I use Creo 2.0 as my CAD software, so this is very interesting for me. I want to 3D scan objects and then edit them parametrically in Creo.

Unfortuantely I couldn´t find much information about how REX works, what it does and so on. I tried to contact the sales team via the contact form (in Germany btw), but they don`t answer me for almost three weeks and there is no phone number or e-mail adress on the website.

So does anyone of you have experience with this extension and can tell me a little bit about it?

Can it automatically detect surfaces, cylinders, radii etc.? If yes, how good does the detection work for 3D Scans (with a professional scanner)?

Does it create a history tree just like in a normal parametric file? So is it feature-based?

Can someone maybe even compare it to a reverse Engineering software like Geomagic design X?

Thanks,

Patrick

[dschenken]

It's discouraging when sales won't call back about a product. Search this community for REX and you will see nearly nothing by users and some suggestions for other products. A few ask a question similar to yours.

[dgschaefer]

We had the same experience when looking at REX.  We did get a nice 60 day trial and finally got a decent demo with our scan data.  The software was powerful, but the lack of supporting documentation meant that making good use of it was going to be challenging.  We ended up going with Space Claim as it was well documented and significantly cheaper.

[PatrickBoehm]

Hello Doug,

thanks for your experiences.

As you have at least worked a little bit with REX, can you tell me if the Extension creates features, that you can edit parametrically? This is important for us, so Spaceclaim won`t work for us...

Do you remeber the price for the addon?

Regards,
Patrick

[dgschaefer]

---

@PatrickBoehm wrote:

Hello Doug,

thanks for your experiences.

As you have at least worked a little bit with REX, can you tell me if the Extension creates features, that you can edit parametrically? This is important for us, so Spaceclaim won`t work for us...

Do you remeber the price for the addon?

Regards,
Patrick

---

It does create features, but not traditional extrudes, revolved, etc.  You work inside kind of a "super feature" similar to ISDX and you can go back in and edit that as needed, I believe.  It will create cylinders, planes and other geometric features from the scan data.

What we learned was, like ISDX, there is a workflow to converting the scan data to geometry that isn't obvious from the interface nor was it evident in the training materials that we found.  Once we had a web conference with an expert at PTC (his name was Lino Tozzi, I believe), he was able to show us techniques that made it much more useful.  Training and regular use (we use our scanner sporadically) would be key to success.

Without digging through my emails for a quote, I recall that the cost was $5K per year for a subscription.  I don't think perpetual licenses are an option anymore, but the perpetual for REX was ridiculous anyway, something like $18K.

[PatrickBoehm]

I see, thank you very much!

I found out that we actually have the REX license in our Creo for some reason, you just have to activate it...

So I will go through the Creo help center and try my best. I was hoping there are at least some good Youtube Tutorials about restyle, but it seems like there isn`t too much...

[MattewSpark]

   REX looks like a pretty promising application with many interesting and powerful tools that allows it to compete with other reverse engineering softwares. But the problem is that it's hard to find any decent REX tutorials, all we could find is paid training courses. This is rather strange, because Geomagic, for example, works with many 3D scanner manufacturers directly, integrating and cooperating its software to simplify 3D scanning. I know that the only way to get a full training support is PTC University, but minimal content and vague documentation is not what you mignt expect of such interesting application.

[bbrejcha]

Rex does not make parametric features however I have been teaching this class for 20+ years for making parametric geometry from STEP & IGES data.  https://design-engine.com/creo-surfacing-level-5-advanced-import-to-create-parametric-surfaces/  

Bart Brejcha

Design-engine.com

[jzhang-3]

any news about Creo Reverse Engineering Extension? I am wondering there are not updating information. we have scanned a old tooling by ROMER Absolute Arm – Model 7525 SI/SE and PolyWorks software, but we can't use these data to rebuild a model.