Inspired by the popularity of up-close recreational experiences in the land of 10,000 lakes, a Minnesota company has figured out how to design and manufacture a unique line of small, electrically powered watercraft. However, the company had a manufacturing problem: The small fiberglass boat was designed and prototyped by hand, which meant that it was not totally uniform and symmetrical.

The challenge

As the company was preparing to scale up production volume, its suppliers began requesting CAD data of the deck and hull so they could precisely make and fit ancillary parts for it. Having a 3-D electronic representation of the craft would vastly improve dialog with suppliers and vendors.

The ability to reverse engineer the boat from digital data was essential for the higher level manufacturing processes the company would employ in the future. Because the body of the boat was a complex shape with many free-form curves and surfaces, hand measurement would have been difficult even with detailed 2-D drawings. It would also be much less precise and thorough, and much more time-consuming.

 …