STEP Tools Weekly Newsletter

[Martin Hardwick]

== STEP Tools Weekly Newsletter -- 18 May 1998

This weekly newsletter is a brief update of what is going on in STEP
and at STEP Tools, Inc.  If you want to know more, try the STEP Tools 
web site (http://www.steptools.com) or the contact for each article.

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GIF and JPEG Visualization Service

A new GIF and JPEG visualization tool has been added to the STEP
Tools Web Translation Service at http://www.steptools.com/translate.
The new tools generate GIF and JPEG visualizations for AP-203 shapes
and assemblies. The visualizations can be viewed in WWW browsers.

--------------------
NIIIP Projects

The National Industrial Information Infrastructure Protocols (NIIIP)
project was awarded to a consortium lead by IBM in 1995. The first
phase of the project ended this year and was focused on developing
protocols to make it easier for industrial organizations to share
information on the Internet. In this phase STEP Tools, Inc. helped
RPI, NIST and General Dynamics Electric Boat develop protocols to make
it easier for organizations to share product data.

The team developed three protocols:

 1) Bindings of the SDAI to Java and CORBA IDL for transporting
    STEP data between clients and servers over the Internet.

 2) The EXPRESS-X language for finding STEP data in a server and
    mapping that data into the model being used by a client.

 3) The STEP Services protocol for integrating product data into 
    a virtual enterprise product repository.

You can find out more about the three protocols at:
 
     http://www.steptools.com/projects/niiip/

The second phase of the NIIIP project is about deploying the NIIIP
protocols in products. STEP Tools, Inc. is integrating the three
product data protocols into its ST-Developer and ST-WebPublisher
programming tools and a new Virtual Enterprise Product Repository
tool. The VEPR delivers, translates, integrates and visualizes product
data for virtual enterprises.

The new tools are being tested in three NIIIP deployment project:

  - NIIIP SHIIP is deploying the tools to transfer ship building data
    between design and the ship yard.

  - NIIIP SMART is deploying the tools to manage product data on the
    factory floor for manufacturing execution systems.

  - NIIIP SPARS is deploying the tools to manage product data for
    teams of suppliers in ship building projects.

For more information on the deployment projects visit the NIIIP home
page at http://www.niiip.org

--------------------
Korean Web Site

Mani Information Systems in Korea has made extensive updates
to its web site. We strongly recommend the site to anyone who
can read Korean or is curious about what our products look like
in Korean.  

    http://www.asc.co.kr/mani/

--------------------
Translation Service Statistics

The following is a usage summary for our translation service this week.
For more information see http://www.steptools.com/translate

Period Covered: Sun May 10 -Sun May 17
    Total usage: 38
    Sucessful usage: 29 (76%)
    Errors: 9 (23%)

--------------------
Our Products

If you are interested in classes, consulting or any of the products
listed please contact info at steptools.com

Programming Tools:
* ST-Developer is a programming tool for writing STEP applications.
* ST-ORACLE is an SQL programming tool for moving STEP data into
  and out of ORACLE databases. 
* ST-ObjectStore is an ObjectStore binding of ST-Developer for moving
  STEP data into and out of ObjectStore databases.
* ST-PowerModel is a tool that inserts STEP data into PowerModel
  databases for Level IV (knowledge base) applications of STEP.
* ST-WebPublisher is a set of programming tools to put STEP data onto
  World Wide Web pages and into Java applets.

Desktop Tools:
* ST-EXPRESS is a set of desktop tools to visualize EXPRESS schemas.
* ST-ACIS is a set of programming and desktop tools for translating
  ACIS solid models.
* ST-Visualizer is a desktop tool to view, analyze and check the
  accuracy of STEP files.


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