37% Lighter Trolley Cart for FleetPride — Validated in Ansys
FleetPride's axle trolley cart redesigned in Ansys — 37% lighter (210 lbs → 132 lbs) while maintaining full 1,000 lb rated capacity.
A decade ago, 3D scanners seemed like an impossible bit of sci-fi. Today, it’s a big part of our daily business at CAD/CAM Services. Our 3D scanners can reverse-engineer a part in a matter of minutes, instead of days. It feels so futuristic whenever we use our 3D laser scanners, and it continues to impress our customers.
Need a digital mockup of your new products? What about engineering simulations to test the strength of your parts? Maybe you need as-builts or engineering drawings of parts that you don’t remember where they came from. No matter what your reasoning is, you can save big when you choose professional outsourced 3D laser scanning services from CAD/CAM Services.
We have an inventory filled with expensive 3D laser scanners that can create point clouds and 3D CAD models from small parts to entire buildings and everything in between. These scanners shoot small lasers or light beams towards a part, then record the reflections. Through some serious computing and real-time math, these scanners can start generating millions of tiny points in space, called a “point cloud”.
Our experts can take these point clouds and generate perfect images of the scanned part. For instance, we can scan a F-35 fighter jet with a handheld scanner, and turn it into a full, finished 3D CAD model in a matter of hours or days. In fact, we did that exact project for the US Air Force, so we know a thing or two about 3D scanning.

3D laser scanning services involve contracting an outside engineering firm and using their 3D scanning equipment to create point clouds of your existing parts. We scan physical parts within your building (or the entire building itself, depending on what you need), and convert them into models that can be used in 3D CAD. By that, we mean that you can open these models, adjust them, make dimensional changes, run engineering simulations, and create 2D manufacturing drawings in a fraction of the time.
With 3d laser scanning services, we are aiming to save you a ton of time. The typical reverse-engineering process takes so long. You need an engineer to use calipers and tape measures to physically measure a part, write down the dimensions, and then reference those dimensions while drawing the part from scratch in CAD.
This process is incredibly slow, has a lot of room for error, and can be really boring for most engineers. Instead, our engineers can perform 3D laser scanning services and expedite the full process, achieve tolerances and accuracies that manual measurements cannot, and take all the error out of the equation.
To put it simply, 3D laser scanning is the best way to reverse engineer any part.

We know that a lot of companies offer 3D laser scanning services, but you need to be careful. If you choose a team that doesn’t have a ton of experience, then you could be in trouble. Plenty of outsourced companies will use inexpensive 3D scanners to save money, and they use an untrained staff to handle the project. In the end, you’re left with unreliable scans and 3D CAD files that don’t even work.
The wrong team can cost you thousands of dollars and waste weeks or months of your time.
Instead, trust CAD/CAM Services. We performed 3D laser scanning services for some of the biggest companies in America, and we have plenty of return customers who love our 3D scanning services. We make the full process incredibly easy, and we have millions of dollars worth of 3D scanners, so we can pick the perfect scanner for each project.
With us, you’ll save time and money, while receiving a better 3D-scanned CAD model.

All of our 3D laser scanning services involve some form of reverse engineering. Most of the time, customers can’t ship the part to us, so we visit their site and perform all of the work. This eliminates some of the logistics headaches, and tends to work pretty well.
In any case, our 3D laser scanning services begin with a free consultation. This is just a quick conversation between you and us, where we learn more about the project and your expectations. Ask us any questions you have, and let us explain exactly why you should choose CAD/CAM Services.
Once the contracts are signed, we’ll arrange a time to visit your building with our 3D laser scanning equipment. Our professionals will set everything up and perform all the scans. Typically, we generate the 3D CAD models in our home office, since we need some serious computing power and multiple hours of non-stop generation.
Once the model is done, we’ll go through some accuracy checks, do peer-reviews, and perform in-house quality assurance checks. If everything is perfect, then we’ll send every file to you digitally through a DoD-trusted filesharing website. We keep everything secure so you don’t need to worry about information leaks.


Choose CAD/CAM Services if you want the best reverse engineering experience. We’ve performed countless 3D laser scanning projects over our 35+ years in business, and we’d love to help you. Allow our pros to streamline the process and make everything super simple. We’re here to do the heavy lifting so you have less to worry about. Contact us for a free quote so we can start saving you time and money today.


FleetPride's axle trolley cart redesigned in Ansys — 37% lighter (210 lbs → 132 lbs) while maintaining full 1,000 lb rated capacity.

A client needed a replacement rotor shaft for industrial equipment. Original CAD files, drawings, and specifications were unavailable.

In this case study, we aimed to create a full digital model of an engine casing. This casing had no current CAD files, outdated drawings, and undocumented shapes because of years of use and part changes.

We were recently tasked with recreating a fan housing using only the client’s original paper drawings.

This case study describes how we helped a defense customer turn a dense point cloud into a usable surface model. This model was a CAD surface for an F‑16 that could feed straight into simulation.
On behalf of JJET Enterprises, I just wanted to thank you and Cad / Cam Services again for the great job and quick turn-around time on the job that we sent you. We would recommend you and definitely will be doing business with you in the near future.
James R. Thomas
JJET Enterprises
“You ROCK and a huge thank you to you and your team for working so diligently to hit our goals.”

Greta Nintzel
Content & Digital Media Associate, Rich Media Team (amazon supply)
Thank you so much for all of your help.
It is greatly appreciated.

Angie
CTR USARMY CCDC ARL (USA)
“CAD / CAM Services has been our source for all CAD related projects over the past 10 years. If it involves CAD conversion or large format scanning, CAD / CAM SERVICES is always our first call.”

Bill Johnson Jr.
Dallas Aerial Surveyors
“CAD / CAM Services provided timely professional consulting advice and guidance that greatly helped us configure our platform for current and near-future expansion needs. Many thanks to Scott Shuppert for all his hard work on this project.”

Richard Schmitter
GTE Media Ventures
“We used CAD / CAM Services for CAD conversion work and it was great! We have already decided to use them for our next project. They did everything they said they were going to do and more. The work turned out well.”

Pete Iannuzzi
Sony Music
“You have been absolutely the BEST Company to work with in my entire career. I almost hate to see us finish our Mylars!”

Jerry McNabb
R Civ USAF – Tinkers Air Force Base
“We used CAD / CAM Services for scanning and converting film and also the purchase and install of IMR’s Electronic Document Imaging Product – Alchemy. They know what they are doing and it has turned out to be a smart purchase for us. We will be adding additional licenses of this product, along with additional scanning and conversion services from them.”

Bill Scott
City of Carrollton
“CAD / CAM Services scanned > 6,000 maps for us and sold and installed a scanner and an EDMS system to our district. It has turned out to be a great investment for our district. We had several competitive firms compete on cost and scanning quality. CAD / CAM Services was the hands-down winner for myself, the engineering staff and the board. We are presently publishing the images on the internet and plan to continue using CAD / CAM Services They treated us fairly and delivered on-time and on-budget.”

Bo Daffin, CTA, RPA
Deputy Chief Appraiser of Central Appraisal District of Collin County
“RISD has been using CAD / CAM Services for years and has no need to consider anybody else. We have used them for scanning thousands of drawings and the install of our engineering/facilities management EDMS system.”

Greg Schulz
Richardson Independent School District
“CAD / CAM Services converted our plant drawings into AutoCAD and they turned out well. We will use them again.”

Phillip Schmidt, Jr.
District Plant Engineering Manager, UPS
“We purchased several Cyco’s AutoManager Workflow licenses from CAD / CAM Services and it has worked out well. We intend to add to this as budget allows”.

Nathan Jones
City of Garland Texas, Engineering Department
“Overall it looked really nice. I definitely like your approach of doing the internals 1st. It really gives me a better idea of what I’m actually programming.”

Shane Duncan
Engineering Manager – W Machine Works Inc.
“CAD / CAM Services was so easy to work with. They delivered our project on time and on budget. I highly recommend.”
Nikko Meyers
Scan Direct
“CAD / CAM Services digitized and converted Electric Utility maps to AutoCAD for our firm. We have been very pleased with the quality of their work and have found CAD / CAM Services to be cooperative and easy to work with.”

Ed Turk
V.P. Cornelius – Pierce Consulting Engineers
“CAD / CAM Services provided timely professional consulting advice and guidance that greatly helped us configure our platform for current and near-future expansion needs. Many thanks to Scott Shuppert for all his hard work on this project.”

Chris Kidd
Dilon Technologies
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Our 3D laser scanning services capture precise surface geometry using high-resolution scan data. Laser scanning is ideal for reverse engineering, inspection, as-built documentation, digitization of legacy parts, and large-scale industrial scanning projects.
CAD/CAM Services provides professional 3D scanning services for parts, assemblies, tooling, aircraft components, facilities, and industrial equipment. Our scanning process captures accurate physical geometry and converts it into usable digital data for CAD modeling, inspection, documentation, and manufacturing support.
Scan-to-CAD services convert physical parts or scanned point cloud data into accurate 3D CAD models. CAD/CAM Services creates native CAD deliverables in CATIA, Siemens NX, Creo, SolidWorks, Inventor, STEP, IGES, and other required engineering formats.
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A decade ago, 3D scanners seemed like an impossible bit of sci-fi. Today, it’s a big part of our daily business at CAD/CAM Services. Our 3D scanners can reverse-engineer a part in a matter of minutes, instead of days. It feels so futuristic whenever we use our 3D laser scanners, and it continues to impress our customers.
Need a digital mockup of your new products? What about engineering simulations to test the strength of your parts? Maybe you need as-builts or engineering drawings of parts that you don’t remember where they came from. No matter what your reasoning is, you can save big when you choose professional outsourced 3D laser scanning services from CAD/CAM Services.
We have an inventory filled with expensive 3D laser scanners that can create point clouds and 3D CAD models from small parts to entire buildings and everything in between. These scanners shoot small lasers or light beams towards a part, then record the reflections. Through some serious computing and real-time math, these scanners can start generating millions of tiny points in space, called a “point cloud”.
Our experts can take these point clouds and generate perfect images of the scanned part. For instance, we can scan a F-35 fighter jet with a handheld scanner, and turn it into a full, finished 3D CAD model in a matter of hours or days. In fact, we did that exact project for the US Air Force, so we know a thing or two about 3D scanning.

3D laser scanning services involve contracting an outside engineering firm and using their 3D scanning equipment to create point clouds of your existing parts. We scan physical parts within your building (or the entire building itself, depending on what you need), and convert them into models that can be used in 3D CAD. By that, we mean that you can open these models, adjust them, make dimensional changes, run engineering simulations, and create 2D manufacturing drawings in a fraction of the time.
With 3d laser scanning services, we are aiming to save you a ton of time. The typical reverse-engineering process takes so long. You need an engineer to use calipers and tape measures to physically measure a part, write down the dimensions, and then reference those dimensions while drawing the part from scratch in CAD.
This process is incredibly slow, has a lot of room for error, and can be really boring for most engineers. Instead, our engineers can perform 3D laser scanning services and expedite the full process, achieve tolerances and accuracies that manual measurements cannot, and take all the error out of the equation.
To put it simply, 3D laser scanning is the best way to reverse engineer any part.

We know that a lot of companies offer 3D laser scanning services, but you need to be careful. If you choose a team that doesn’t have a ton of experience, then you could be in trouble. Plenty of outsourced companies will use inexpensive 3D scanners to save money, and they use an untrained staff to handle the project. In the end, you’re left with unreliable scans and 3D CAD files that don’t even work.
The wrong team can cost you thousands of dollars and waste weeks or months of your time.
Instead, trust CAD/CAM Services. We performed 3D laser scanning services for some of the biggest companies in America, and we have plenty of return customers who love our 3D scanning services. We make the full process incredibly easy, and we have millions of dollars worth of 3D scanners, so we can pick the perfect scanner for each project.
With us, you’ll save time and money, while receiving a better 3D-scanned CAD model.

All of our 3D laser scanning services involve some form of reverse engineering. Most of the time, customers can’t ship the part to us, so we visit their site and perform all of the work. This eliminates some of the logistics headaches, and tends to work pretty well.
In any case, our 3D laser scanning services begin with a free consultation. This is just a quick conversation between you and us, where we learn more about the project and your expectations. Ask us any questions you have, and let us explain exactly why you should choose CAD/CAM Services.
Once the contracts are signed, we’ll arrange a time to visit your building with our 3D laser scanning equipment. Our professionals will set everything up and perform all the scans. Typically, we generate the 3D CAD models in our home office, since we need some serious computing power and multiple hours of non-stop generation.
Once the model is done, we’ll go through some accuracy checks, do peer-reviews, and perform in-house quality assurance checks. If everything is perfect, then we’ll send every file to you digitally through a DoD-trusted filesharing website. We keep everything secure so you don’t need to worry about information leaks.


Choose CAD/CAM Services if you want the best reverse engineering experience. We’ve performed countless 3D laser scanning projects over our 35+ years in business, and we’d love to help you. Allow our pros to streamline the process and make everything super simple. We’re here to do the heavy lifting so you have less to worry about. Contact us for a free quote so we can start saving you time and money today.

It depends on the complexity of the scanned model and material properties. As, for example, it may be much more complicated to properly scan an object with a reflective surface, than a non-reflective surface. It also depends on three main factors:
Simple quick cell phone photos are worth a thousand words to us. To know for sure you can request a quote. It is of course, free – and treated as if an NDA is already in place.
Some averages:
Because so much of our business is Aerospace related, our scanning – and the completed CAD file HAS to be within ±.005” anywhere on that part, we never use consumer-grade scanners. The scanners we use start at $25,000 and go up to $700,000 (CT) per scanner.
At any given time, we have in excess of $ 5 million just in scanning hardware we use. In addition, a hidden factor of scanning on any system is the assembly and clean up of any scan. The rule of thumb is a 2-1 ratio. So even with our experienced scanning staff, if we spend one-hour scanning; we will then spend an additional two hours of clean up and assembly before our CAD group gets the Point Cloud file to simulate or reverse engineer.
A point cloud is thousands if not millions of data points located in space by X, Y, Z coordinates. Images of this nature are often captured with Faro Focus or Artec scanners that specialize in large-area scanning. Most likely you obtain building and territory plans in this file format.
A polygon mesh is a set of triangles located in the same manner. These scans are obtained with Artec, Creaform, Enscan and other handheld scanners. Parts and reverse engineering device scans are usually polygon meshes.
The scanners we use are as accurate as the industry offers – from anybody at any cost. We use Faro and Artec 3D scanners, in addition to Faro CMM type arms, including the Surveyor tables. Depending on what scanner we use:
The typical AEC D & E size sheet is $225. There are possible discounts depending on the job size. The more you convert the less you pay. The bulk of the files we produce are for AutoCAD.
In order to make an accurate representation, you have to calibrate the original drawing, which may have deformed during its storage period. Non-dimensioned mediums need to be thoroughly calibrated before digitizing.
Parts of scanned data may be lost due to time and other factors. Because it is important to recreate the design intent, we need to recreate lost data.
You ONLY receive Cad Perfect™ files – as if you had drawn these by hand.
Using Revit, yes we do. Think of BIM as an intelligent 3D model of your building. We know exactly where all of the HVAC is, IT cabling, electrical, the cost of doors and windows, when mechanical systems need to be serviced, all the way to a room number with a phone number and IP in that room. In addition to our Ray Tracing technology to support some very life-like photo renderings.
The Department of Homeland Security protocol PPD-21 requirement has deemed that sixteen (16) industries and services are critical to our US Nations security.
These industries require additional security protocols when creating CAD files. CAD / CAM Services follows all of these requirements. Think of industries and info structures such as power, water, along with fourteen (14) other industries. For a full list please see Critical Infrastructure Products.
Mylar films can be stored in climate-controlled facilities. However, films get skewed and change sizes over time – ironically not linear. So what changes on one end, does not apply to what is in the middle, or the other end. We have seen ‘J’ size Aerospace Mylars (about 48×180”), vary by a full inch.
CAD/CAM Services utilizes a proprietary process to make Mylar raster images dead on a 5” or 10” grid. Our process was developed in conjunction with, and approved by Boeing engineers.
We need to know whether you need your parts to be scanned by us. Or many times we can work with 3D scans provided by third-party companies. The quality of the scan is everything in our business. Anyway, we strongly advise you to use us for both the scanning and the CAD conversion aspects. That way, we can control the quality. Sometimes we receive poor quality scans which make it impossible to create truly Cad Perfect™ models for you. By all means, send us a couple of even cell phone photos, and the rough size of the object. Most of the time, this will provide us enough information to provide a real bid.
The price depends on the part complexity, size, as well as the target file parametres. We need to know whether you need full parametric models, and your desired accuracy. If you tell us the purpose of reverse-engineered models, we can often provide you with possible solutions. The target CAD software may change the price as well. This includes sophisticated Workstation add-on products such as Composites, Catia electrical wiring, mold design, and others.
Reverse engineering is the process of analyzing an existing physical object, product, component, assembly, or system to understand its design, dimensions, materials, and functionality so it can be recreated, modified, documented, or manufactured again.
In the CAD and engineering world, reverse engineering typically involves converting a physical part into accurate 3D CAD models, 2D drawings, and engineering documentation.
We often: 1) Capture Existing Data by 3D scanning, 2) create a Digital model, often called a Point Cloud, 3) build a 3D model, and 4) produce the required engineering documentation.
Typical Accuracy Ranges
Hand Measurements (Calipers, Micrometers) ±0.001" to ±0.010"
Structured Light Scanning ±0.001" to ±0.005"
Laser Scanning ±0.002" to ±0.010"
Photogrammetry ±0.010" to ±0.100"+
CMM Measurement ±0.0001" to ±0.001"
Hybrid Scan + CMM Validation ±0.0005" to ±0.002"
For aerospace, medical, and precision manufacturing applications, a combination of 3D scanning and CMM inspection is often used to achieve the highest accuracy.
Also, there can be two parts to this answer: 1) The accuracy of the scanner, and then 2) if we are going all the way to an editable feature-rich CAD file. If we are going all the way to the CAD file, we are within ±.005” of any Point Cloud data.
Many people use the terms 3D scanning and reverse engineering interchangeably, but they are not the same thing.
3D scanning is the process of capturing an object's geometry. Reverse engineering is the process of converting that captured data into usable engineering information, such as CAD models, drawings, and manufacturing documentation.
Simple Explanation
Think of it this way:
A 3D scanner captures the shape of an object. Reverse engineering transforms that shape into an intelligent, editable CAD model that engineers and manufacturers can use.
Yes. Reverse engineering obsolete parts is one of the most common reasons organizations pursue reverse engineering services.
When original manufacturers no longer support a component—or when CAD files, drawings, tooling, and engineering records have been lost—reverse engineering can recreate the engineering data needed to manufacture replacement parts and extend the life of critical equipment.
Why Obsolete Parts Need Reverse Engineering
Organizations often face situations where:
Rather than replacing an entire machine, reverse engineering allows companies to reproduce the specific component that has become unavailable.
You bet we can. We created millions of files for Amazon’s online catalog, so no doubt we can help you. Click Link 1, Link 2 or Link 3 for some live Amazon examples. Simply select any file type from the list under the photo.
We directly support TraceParts.com, PartSolutions, GrabCAD, and several others.
There are no limits to creative tasks. Contact us and we will work something out. This includes part animation, expanded views, opening up assemblies, and full digital mock-ups.
We can stage what you want, or propose to you with our exclusive cinematic masterpiece.