STL file generation with data reduction by the Delaunay triangulation method in reverse engineering

Reverse engineering has been widely used for the shape reconstruction of an object without CAD data and Apical steps include the scanning of a clay or wood model and the generation of manufacturing data such as an STL file. A new approach to remove point data with Delaunay triangulation is introduced to deal with the size problems of the STL file and the difficulties in the operation of the rapid prototyping (RP) process. The selection of a group of triangles, based on the angle, is used for a robust and reliable implementation of the Delaunay triangulation method. The developed software enables the user to specify the criteria for the selection of the group of triangles by the tingle between triangles, the percentage of reduced triangles, and the allowable area. This approach can be, used to reduce the measuring data from the laser scanner, thus save the handling time of point data during the modelling process and is useful for verifying and slicing the STL model during the RP process.