The dimensioning of thin walled parts within automotive construction is highly influenced by Finite Element Analysis and Optimization. The common targets are to improve stiffness or eigenfrequencies. The FE Model which is based on the concept CAD geometry of the designer is mostly created by a specialized computational engineer. The data exchange is done with universal non-parametric CAD data formats, like IGES. At this stage a direct update of the FE geometry, by changing the CAD geometry and vice versa, is impossible, so the necessary variation of the shape is achieved by deforming the FE mesh. These deformations are called beads in technical language, and they must be rebuilt in CAD geometry by hand. This so called “reverse engineering” is very time consuming for the designer. Within the research project “Automation of optimization tasks inside the construction process of thin walled parts”, at the University of Applied Sciences Zwickau (Germany), in association with FES Zwickau and Volkswagen Kassel, we c eated a new workflow which allows for more simple reverse engineering. The process will be demonstrated in this article by using an automotive body part, namely a car tailgate.