The Energon Pub

I've been thinking about this a lot today. The Transformers scan machines to reconfigure their body's into a suitable form so they can transform into said machine. But, how do they obtain their original forms on Cybertron? There must be something they can scan. Perhaps, blueprints of some sort? Also, what about Beast-forms? I've pretty much accepted that they can scan a living or fossilized creature, then transform into a mechanical version of it. So, I guess that explains the Predacons in Beast Hunters, and any other Beast-bot from any other series.
But that still doesn't explain Dragon transformers such as Ripclaw. Unless the Transformers can modify their alt modes to add wings to a dinosaur, if they can do that, I guess that means they just combine two alt modes to make a single Hybrid mode. Since dragons are a mix of creatures. I'd like to know if any of this is accurate, is this how it works or is there more to it? Aside from that, are there other ways that a Transformer can obtain an alternate form?

Well, I can't tell about cybertronian alt-forms, but the thing about Predacons in TFP: Beast Hunters is different: they didn't scan the beast froms. If you watch the show then you learn that the Predacons were born beasts. The very fact that they could transform was a big shocker for everyone. So basically the dragon-thing: it's all evolution. The same way some small dinosaur once evolved into the giant T-rex and a microscopic life-form eventually became the dominant species of Earth.

As for cybertronian alt-forms, your own idea of blueprints sounds plausible and acceptable. Though a different thing to take into account is that many KNOWN transformers have different body-types (with possibly countless un-known, read GENERIC robots sharing said body-types) which possibly have a specific alt-form originally built into it. kind of like TFA where Bee's body-type was shared by countless generic autobots (and Wasp). It is a possibility that when a cybertronian is born then he/she is given a body-model which then defines their physical appearance. And also provides an alternate form, given by a vehicle specified for said body and maybe for certain tasks (construction, military, medical etc). By this logic same body-type could have several different alt-forms which are similar in appearance but different by function.
And as given in TFP, transformers are able to scan different vehicles to adapt to their environment by biology (T-cog). (Maybe it wasn't specifically spelled out in the show but you get the idea) So basically, if they happen to be on another planet (Earth) where they want to stay in secret, and the planet's inhabitants (humans) have developed technology (cars, planes, trucks, trains) that are suitable for transformes (size, appearance, mass, but not scale and sometimes logic) then they should have no problem scanning those forms.
But beast-formers in other series (say, Beast Wars for example) is out of my knowledge. I've never seen that series, though I plan to.

When Transformers are created they have a robot mode and an alt mode. Primus created the Transformers, including the first thirteen which can all transform, and the first thirteen are all Primes. One of the first thirteen is a beast Prime. Beasts you could consider useful on uneven terrain, such as most planets.

Transformers have two modes for functionality. Transformers scan new forms when they go to a new world and want a different form. Beast formers usually don’t need to or care to hide. “Robots in Disguise” is only for specific times and places. Check out the below websites for more information.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Thirteen

http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Thirteen