STEP Tools Weekly Newsletter for Monday December 21

[Martin Hardwick]

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.

--------------------
Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody. 

--------------------
CADKEY 98 includes STEP Tools Translator

CADKEY 98 has been released to its 250,000 customers with a STEP
translator built using our ST-ACIS Library. This library contains
a set of functions for translating AP-203 assemblies to ACIS and
vice versa. Baystate Technologies used the library to implement
AP-203 and AP-214 translators for the latest version of its
highly popular mechanical CAD system.

	http://www.cadkey.com

--------------------
EXPRESS-X NWI

The New Work Item for EXPRESS-X will be submitted to ISO early in the
New Year. Submission of the NWI means that the clock starts ticking
and the final version must become a standard within 36 months. The
committee is confident that it can make this deadline. The latest
version of the Language Reference Manual (WG11/N066) was completed
by Peter Denno of NIST last week and it is being put onto the SOLIS
and STEP Tools web sites.

	http://www.steptools.com/projects/express-x/homepage.html

--------------------
Class Schedule for 1999

A schedule for four class on STEP has been put onto our web site.
There is at least one class each month. The four classes include:

	Introduction to STEP
	Object Oriented Information Modeling with EXPRESS
	Application Programming with STEP
	Implementing STEP Translators

In 1999 we are considering adding a fifth class on how Boeing is
using STEP in its DCAC/MRM initiative to share airplane configuration
date with its supply chain.

We need to get Boeing's permission to hold this class but before we
do so it would be nice to know how much interest you all have. Please
send us e-mail if you would like us to give this class and let us
know when would be most convenient time for you.

--------------------
Best week yet for Translation Service

My christmas present is the best week yet for the Translation Service.
There were only 11 failures in 167 translations. Of the mature tools
the ACIS to STEP translator only failed once out of 34 tries. The
reverse translator did not fail at all in 49 tries. The  XML translator
did not fail at all either (see last week). However, the AP203
Conformance Validation tool (ap203check) failed 4 times (out of 27).
We are investigating why this happened and if anyone has an AP-203 file
that is causing a problem please send us a copy.

The other failures were in the GIF and VRML generators. We are actively
working on these tools as part of our continuing efforts to complete
Version 1.0 of ST-WebExchange. Their success rates should improve
dramatically in the next 6 months.

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

Summary:
Period Covered: Sun Dec 13 03:25:09 1998 -- Sun Dec 20 03:25:09 1998
Total usage: 167
Successful usage: 156 (93%)
Errors: 11 (6%)


Translator	total	errors	success rate

acis-ap203	34	1	97%
ap203-acis	49	0	100%
ap203-vrml	11	0	100%
ap203-xml	8	0	100%
ap203check	27	4	85%
expfront2	17	0	100%
express2html	2	0	100%
gifviz		8	3	62%
steptoimage	11	3	72%

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

------------------------------------
Summary:
Period Covered: Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 1969 -- Sun Dec 20 03:25:18 1998
Total usage: 2453
Successful usage: 2134 (86%)
Errors: 319 (13%)


Translator	total	errors	success rate

acis-ap203	517	16	96%
ap203-acis	897	102	88%
ap203-stl	51	17	66%
ap203-vrml	285	78	72%
ap203-xml	59	12	79%
ap203check	69	11	84%
expfront	124	17	86%
expfront2	23	0	100%
express2html	202	0	100%
expxfront	11	1	90%
gifviz		38	20	47%
iges-ap202	10	0	100%
sp203-xml	13	2	84%
steptoimage	154	43	72%

--------------------
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 product data with customers and suppliers
  over the Internet.


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