STEP Tools Weekly News -- Aug 24th

[David Loffredo]

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.

There was no newsletter last week because the editor was at two 
demonstrations given by the NIIIP project.

--------------------
NIIIP Demonstrations

The National Industrial Information Infrastructure Protocols project
began in 1994. The project was sponsored by government ($25M) and
industry ($45M) to find ways to make it easier for industrial
enterprises to share data and processes over the Internet. The NIIIP
project was divided into two phases. The first phase from 1994 to 1997
developed protocols. The second phase from 1997 to 2000 is applying
the protocols to industrial problems.

In phase 2 STEP Tools, Inc. is participating in three pilot projects
called NIIP SMART, NIIIP SHIIP and NIIIP SPARS. Two of the projects
held their Cycle 2 (Year 2) demonstrations last week.

--------------------
NIIIP SHIIP

In NIIIP SHIIP, STEP Tools, Inc. showed how the SDAI Java protocol can
be used to deliver an Electronic Work Package to a ship yard. Piping
information was taken from a CATIA database and put into a set of SDAI
Java objects and Java applets were written to manipulate the objects.

The demonstration showed how a shipyard worker can access the objects
from a WWW browser and build a picture containing the information
needed to fit a set of pipes onto a boat.  A picture containing just
the information needed for a task was built in a few minutes, sent to
a printer and carried onto the boat. The one page was then compared to
the many pages of details containing less than ideal views prepared in
advance by draftsmen.

--------------------
NIIIP SMART

In NIIIP SMART, STEP Tools, Inc. showed how the EXPRESS-X data mapping
protocol can be used to map STEP information into a set of objects for
a Manufacturing Execution System. The data was taken from AP-203 and
AP-213 of STEP and mapped into an OMG data model.

In the demonstration data was taken from the STEP Tools, Inc. data
translation service and converted into a set of SDAI Java objects with
the OMG object model using EXPRESS-X. The objects were then put onto a
data access page showing the role of the objects in the manufacture of
a product.

--------------------
Implementing STEP Translators

Our most intensive course on STEP will be held from September 15-18.
This four day course covers everything from EXPRESS, to STEP usage of
EXPRESS, to application programming with EXPRESS models, to writing
translators for Part 42 of STEP. The course will be held in Troy, New
York at the start of the Fall Foliage season.

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

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

Summary:
	Total usage: 1060
	Successful usage: 703 (66%)
	Errors: 357 (33%)

--------------------
WELCOME NEW AND REPEAT CUSTOMERS IN JULY 1998!

    Korea Agency for Defense Development (ST-Developer,
		ST-Oracle, ST-Visualizer and ST-WebPublisher)
    Allied Signal (ST-Visualizer)
    Allison Transmission (ST-ACIS)
    ENSAIS (ST-Developer)
    Knolls Atomic Power Laboratories (ST-Developer, ST-Oracle)
    Parametric Technology Israel, Ltd. (ST-ACIS eval)
    Sandia National Laboratories (ST-ACIS and ST-Developer eval)
    Secom Co., Ltd. (ST-Developer)
    Seoungkyunkwan University (ST-Developer)
    University of Saskatchewan (ST-Developer)
    Goddard Space Flight Center (ST-Developer, ST-Visualizer, ST-WebPublisher)
    Exartech International (ST-Developer)
    3D Eye, Inc. (ST-ACIS)
    Tecnomatix Machining Automation BV (ST-Developer)

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