STEP Tools Weekly Newsleter for November 23 (day late)

Tue Nov 24 13:14:02 EST 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.

--------------------
ST-Parasolid in STEPnet Testing

ST-Parasolid is a tool we are developing to translate STEP Part 42
data to Parasolid and vice versa. Parasolid is a solid modeling kernel
with similar functionality to the ACIS solid modeling kernel. Each has
been selected by major CAD vendors. For example, ACIS is used for
solid modeling by AUTOCAD and Parasolid is used for solid modeling by
SolidWorks.

ST-Parasolid will be available as a translator, as an extensible
library and in source code form. We will be testing ST-Parasolid in
Round 13 of of STEPnet in January. STEPnet is a PDES, Inc. sponsored
testing forum that brings CAD vendors together for inter-operability
testing. We will test ST-Parasolid with a wide range of CAD systems
and continue to test ST-ACIS.

--------------------
EXPRESS-G in ST-Developer Version 7

One of the biggest obstacles to the wide spread deployment of STEP is
the large size of product data models which makes them difficult to
understand. One of our first tools was a graphics compiler that makes
EXPRESS-G graphical diagrams for the STEP product models. This tool
makes the STEP models easier to understand by creating diagrams that
are easy to navigate.  Furthermore, it does this without any effort on
your part unless you have special requirements such as making the
diagram be as small as possible.

The next version of EXPRESS-G tool is going to make navigating
diagrams even easier by providing a wide variety of navigation
options. From each entity in a diagram you will be to get the
following lists with a single button click.

* A list of the supertypes of the entity.
* A list of the subtypes of the entity.

* A list of the forward references from the entity so that you can 
  find all the entities that can be reached directly or indirectly
  from this entity.

* A list of backward references to the entity so that you can find 
  all the entities that depend on this entity to directly or
  indirectly define one of their values.

The tool can list entities that are the roots of inheritance trees, as
well as entities that are the roots of forward reference trees.  These
new features are in addition to the current tools that can search for
an entity using a name or a subset of a name. Once you have picked an
entity you can navigate to its location in a single button click. If
an entity is important then you can place a bookmark at its location
so that you can return there rapidly later.

--------------------
Upcoming Classes

An Introduction to the STEP Standard -- This class is a good
introduction to STEP for managers and anyone else who needs to
understand the business advantages of standard product data. 
The next class is being held on Monday, December 7.

	http://www.steptools.com/training/introstep.html

Implementing STEP Translators -- This class is a comprehensive course
on everything you need to know to write a STEP geometry translator. It
includes hands-on training using our programming environments and
makes extensive use of examples from our ST-ACIS programming
library. The next class is being held from December 8 to 11.

	http://www.steptools.com/training/trans.html

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

Summary:
Period Covered: Sun Nov 15 03:25:03 1998 -- Sun Nov 22 03:25:03 1998
Total usage: 65
Successful usage: 58 (89%)
Errors: 7 (10%)

Translator	total	errors	success rate

acis-ap203	11	0	100%
ap203-acis	39	1	97%
ap203-vrml	3	2	33%
ap203-xml	3	0	100%
ap203check	2	1	50%
express2html	2	0	100%
gifviz		5	3	40%

=======================================
All-Time stats

------------------------------------
Summary:
Period Covered: Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 1969 -- Sun Nov 22 03:25:10 1998
Total usage: 2050
Successful usage: 1778 (86%)
Errors: 272 (13%)

Translator	total	errors	success rate

acis-ap203	446	15	96%
ap203-acis	726	81	88%
ap203-stl	49	16	67%
ap203-vrml	262	76	70%
ap203-xml	36	5	86%
ap203check	23	5	78%
expfront	124	17	86%
expfront2	5	0	100%
express2html	181	0	100%
expxfront	11	1	90%
gifviz		29	16	44%
iges-ap202	10	0	100%
sp203-xml	13	2	84%
steptoimage	135	38	71%

--------------------
Our Tools

Our tools have been used to implement the STEP translators of EDS
Unigraphics, Bentley Microstation, Alias Wavefront, IRONCAD, CADKEY
and many more. For more information on classes, consulting and any of
these tools contact info at steptools.com.

Programming:
* ST-Developer -- programming tools for writing STEP applications,
  translators and databases.

* ST-ORACLE -- SQL programming tool for moving STEP data into and
  out of ORACLE databases. 

* ST-ObjectStore -- ObjectStore binding of ST-Developer for moving
  STEP data into and out of ObjectStore databases.

* ST-PowerModel -- programming tools for moving STEP data into and
  out of PowerModel databases.

* ST-WebPublisher -- XML, JAVA, GIF and HTML programming tools for
  managing STEP data on the Internet.

* ST-ACIS Library -- programming functions to convert STEP data to 
  and from ACIS models and SAT files.

* ST-Parasolid Library -- programming functions to convert STEP data to 
  and from Parasolid models.

Desktop:
* ST-EXPRESS -- desktop tool to visualize EXPRESS schemas.

* ST-ACIS Translator -- desktop tool for translating STEP data to
  ACIS and vice versa.

* ST-Parasolid Translator -- desktop tool for translating STEP data to
  Parasolid and vice versa.

* ST-Visualizer -- desktop tool to view, analyze and check the
  accuracy of STEP databases.

Data Exchange:
* ST-WebExchange -- World Wide Web translation and visualization
  services for sharing standard product data with customers and
  suppliers over the Internet.

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