Abstract: As an advanced technique, 3D coordinate measurement plays an important role in realizing the goal of automating manufacturing processes. It finds applications in fields that range from dimensional inspection, flexible set-up, precision assembly, reverse engineering, to geometric variation characterization. An overview on the related techniques of measurement, geometric modeling and PR or NC code generation from massive data points is presented. The state of art techniques of multi-sensor integrated measurement, sampling scheme, accessibility analysis, probing strategy, probe path generation, probe radius compensation, integration of multiple measured data, measurement based localization and assembly, profile error evaluation, geometric variation characterization, surface reconstruction, data segmentation, RP/RE integration and NC code generation from measured data are introduced in detail. The bottlenecks involved are analyzed, and potential solutions are discussed. Finally, a brief prospect on future works is presented.

Key words: Coordinate measurement, Geometric modeling, Geometric variation characterization, Localization, NC machining, Profile error evaluation, Rapid prototyping, Reverse engineering