RAM 1500 FENDER FLARE · STRUCTURED LIGHT · 11,830,927 TRIANGLES
PPF Engine
Case study · RAM 1500 · bolt-on fender flare
No pattern fit the flare. So the flare became the pattern.
STEK Estonia had the truck in the bay and nothing to cut. They sent us one 3D scan. We sent back a plotter-ready file with all nine bolt recesses in it.
The scan
11,830,927 triangles
The template
1485 × 435 mm
Bolt recesses
9 traced
Delivered as
SVG · DXF · PLT
01 The job
The truck was in the bay. The pattern did not exist.
A black RAM 1500 on bolt-on fender flares. The customer wanted the flares protected too. No pattern library had them, and nobody wanted a knife anywhere near that paint.
So the flare itself became the pattern.
STEK Estonia workshop · RAM 1500 · bolt-on flares, gloss black
01
Aftermarket part
Libraries draw the car, not what was bolted to it.
Every pattern database has a RAM 1500 front fender. None has this flare. The part came from a catalog the pattern makers never see.
02
Nine bolt recesses
Each opening is a place for the film to fail.
The flare is held by nine bolts, each sunk in its own pocket. Film bridged over a pocket lifts. Film trimmed around one by hand means a blade next to gloss black.
03
A 1.5 metre arch
Too long to guess, too curved to measure with a tape.
The flare runs the whole wheel arch and rolls over its own edge. Bulk film on a shape like that is a slow install and a lot of film on the floor.
02 · The cut file
One scan in. One file out.
This is the file STEK Estonia cut, drawn here from the exported SVG itself. Nobody redrew it. The outline is exactly what came out of PPF Engine after about three minutes of processing: no anchor moved, no curve cleaned up by hand. Point at a bolt recess to put it under the loupe, and switch drafts to see why a circle was not good enough.
going on: the cut openings landing on the pockets
Processing
≈ 3 min
Edits after export
None
Outline
182 Bézier segments
Cut length
4,561 mm
01
STEK Estonia scanned the flare
One pass with a handheld structured-light scanner, on the truck, in the bay. The mesh came to us as a single STL: 11,830,927 triangles.
02
PPF Engine flattened it
The curved surface was unrolled into one flat piece, 1485 × 435 mm, with five relief notches where the flare turns hardest. About three minutes of processing.
03
The recesses were traced, not assumed
The first draft used a 38 mm circle for every bolt pocket. The second reads each pocket lip straight off the scan and offsets it 3 mm, because no two of the nine are the same shape.
04
Cut files went back
SVG, DXF and PLT, in real millimetres, exactly as exported. Loaded on the plotter, cut from the roll, installed on the truck.
03 What went back
Files the plotter already understands.
No proprietary format and nothing to convert. The same geometry four ways, from the vector you can edit to the session you can reopen.
.svg
Editable vector
One outline, nine cutouts, real millimetres. Opens in Illustrator, Inkscape or any plotter front end.
.dxf
Cutter and CAD software
The same geometry for the cutting software the shop already runs, outline and cutouts on their own layers.
.plt
Straight to the plotter
HPGL for Graphtec-class cutters. No conversion step between the email and the roll.
.ppf
The whole session
The PPF Engine project: scan, flatten and every edit, still adjustable. The next RAM on these flares is a re-cut, not a redo.
film installed · a clean opening around every bolt pocket
04 The result
The job stayed in the shop.
The flare went on in one piece, with the nine openings already where the bolts are. No hand templating on the truck, and no blade trimming around a pocket on gloss black paint.
- Before
- No pattern in any library. Bulk film and a knife, or turn the flares down.
- After
- One piece, 1485 × 435 mm, nine cutouts, cut on the shop's own plotter.
- Next time
- The template is on file. The next RAM on these flares is a re-cut.
PPF studio and distributor, Estonia · stek.eeYour bay, next
The car in your bay is the pattern.
PPF Engine is the software that did this job: scan, flatten, check, cut. It ships to installers in December 2026, and the presale is open.