CADENA: STEPWISE CAD REVERSE ENGINEERING

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) is essential in modern engineering, yet the conversion of existing shapes into editable CAD models remains a significant challenge requiring expert intervention. This paper introduces CADENA, a novel approach that reconstructs a 3D mesh as a parametric CAD program by sequentially reversing the order of operations while constantly assessing the target geometry against the predictions. In addition, we present CADENA-Bench, a benchmark designed for evaluating reverse-engineering methods specifically on mechanical parts, which addresses the current lack of such benchmarks. The results demonstrate that CADENA surpasses previous methods in performance, as evidenced by its outcomes on CADENA-Bench, along with established datasets such as DeepCAD, Fusion 360, and MCB. This advancement not only promotes efficiency in CAD model generation from raw geometries but also enhances the replicability of engineering processes. Code, model weights, and the CADENA-Bench are available for public access, facilitating further research and development in this domain.