KVS Ltd is the company behind QUICKSURFACE, a powerful, intuitive, and cost-effective 3D scan-to-CAD solution used by professional engineers, designers, and manufacturers around the world.
With roots in developing 3D scanner systems in the 1990s, the KVS team brings decades of experience in delivering practical, high-performance professional reverse engineering tools. KVS is an independent software company, trusted by leading brands like NASA, Toyota, and Pandora to turn 3D scan data into accurate, manufacturable CAD models — quickly and reliably.
Headquartered in the UK with R&D in Bulgaria, KVS works closely with reseller partners throughout the world and also directly with scanner manufacturers to offer seamless, end-to-end reverse engineering workflows.
Interview with Chris Dryden, Head of Strategy & Partnerships at QUICKSURFACE.
What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Chris Dryden: The business is currently fully focussed on producing 3D reverse engineering software. The capability provided by this type of software is absolutely essential for anyone using professional grade 3D scanning systems as an input device for creating fully manufacturable CAD information. The principles of 3D reverse engineering have been around for a long time, but we bring our own ethos and approach to this, which is particularly well suited to both individuals with many years of experience in this area, and also those getting into 3D scanning to CAD for the first time.
As a small company we have two business centres. Commercial operations are managed from the UK, while financial administration and software development are run from Bulgaria.
Globally, we work through a network of partnerships. We work with resellers operating in individual territories, adding value by creating full solutions including both 3D scanning hardware, our software and also providing local training and support. We also have partnerships directly with some of the leading 3D scanning hardware manufacturers.
What’s the news about new products/services?
C.D: As mentioned above, the principles of 3D reverse engineering software have been available on the market for many years, even pre-dating non-contact 3D scanning.
QUICKSURFACE was first launched in 2019 with a strong emphasis on ease of use and affordability. Each year, typically around the time of Formnext, we offer a new major release to the market. We pride ourselves in investing heavily in driving our product forward with new features and functionality to further our goal to provide the easiest to use professional level 3D reverse engineering software on the market. This is something that we constantly hear is really highly valued by our customers.
In addition to this constant feature innovation, with QUICKSURFACE 2026 we revealed our new version using Siemens Parasolid kernel, thereby adding more traditional CAD functionality and levering an incredibly mature and widely used kernel foundation. This was the first major change to the product architecture since its launch.
What are the ranges of products/services?
C.D: QUICKSURFACE Pro is our flagship offering which since launch has been offered as a permanent license (one off payment) only. With QUICKSURFACE 2026 we now also offer annual licensing for the first time. With this, we are hoping to make QUICKSURFACE even more accessible for those needing a lower initial cost entry point to professional 3D reverse engineering.
We also offer ‘QUICKSURFACE Lite’ as an even more affordable cut-back version of our standalone software that offers basic core reverse engineering tools for alignment and then extract key geometric features from scan data.
For SOLIDWORKS users we also offer a plug-in version of QUICKSURFACE, enabling users to work with huge scan files of many millions of triangles, directly inside of SOLIDWORKS. For those used to using dedicated 3D scan handling software this is something that may seem fairly standard, however delivering this directly inside of SOLIDWORKS, is actually quite a different matter.
Whichever ‘flavour’ of QUICKSURFACE is used, our products are constantly rated by users as being the most highly capable, yet also easiest to use and most intuitive, of all 3D reverse engineering options.
What is the state of the market where you are currently active?
C.D: Overall, the market is strong for us. This is a combination of a couple of different factors.
Firstly, the overall 3D technology market is still growing at a healthy rate, as it has been for quite a number of years, with increasing numbers of end users able to access highly capable technologies. This market expansion likely benefits all providers that are offering high quality product offerings that represent strong value to the growing user base.
Secondly, QUICKSURFACE is becoming an ever more well recognised and respected leading player within the sector. Within only a couple of years we have experienced this directly. It does not feel long ago that at our first international trade shows people asked who we were and what we do. Recently people are now actively looking for us to try our products, see the new features and meet our team to discuss their needs. I think most people in our field would recognise QUICKSURFACE as the most dominant independent provider of reverse engineering software on the market.
What can you tell us about market trends?
C.D: The market trend making the biggest impact is the continued ‘democratisation’ of 3D scanning, through a number of scanner hardware providers that are driving hard to offer great products at an affordable price. Today, a very affordable sub €5000 scanner can achieve what a scanner costing 10x this delivered only around 10 years ago.
This democratisation means many users don’t have the years of formal training or experience in this technology space that would have been typical of the 3D scanner user of 10 years ago. QUICKSURFACE is favoured by this growing new user-base due to its superior workflow and ease of use.
What are the most innovative products/services marketed?
C.D: Innovation at KVS extends beyond technical features to include workflow design and user enablement.
We are working to do our part in democratising the technology space by making the learning curve for handling 3D scan data much easier and more widely accessible compared to the industry norm.
As one example, we are constantly investing in producing tutorial video content. The current generation of learners are not all working for large corporates anymore, so don’t always have access to budgets for expert training. They more commonly turn to self learning content. We currently have something like 200 functions and processes documented in video tutorial form, and this is growing each month.
In terms of technical innovation, this is of course of continued importance and something that is part of our ‘business DNA’. One example of really cool recent technical innovation is the introduction of real-time accuracy control on every feature step. Having this function at every step means keeping a continual view on model accuracy, resulting in the most optimal final results, and in turn providing the end user with the most effective process of 3D reverse engineering.
What estimations do you have for the beginning of 2026?
C.D: 2026 has already started strong and busy for us. We are excited to be directly participating in a number of international trade shows for the first time this year, ever further expanding recognition of our brand and products. Come visit us for a demo at:
- TCT Asia, Shanghai, March 2026
- Rapid TCT, Boston, April 2026
- Formnext, Frankfurt, November 2026
We don’t see any evidence that the underlying industry and market forces mentioned earlier show signs of retracting. This means we will most likely see even stronger hardware offerings at even more compelling price points, that attract more users to the space. QUICKSURFACE is well positioned to service the needs of these users.
