No subject

[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).


--------------------
STEP-NC Meeting in Switzerland

First the important information. The skiing is fantastic at Davos but
the scenery at St. Mortiz is more spectacular.

Very good progress was made at the STEP-NC meeting. Several documents
will be submitted for DIS ballot in the next six months though some
issues remain to be resolved (the most important being the division of
the geometry into conformance classes). The DIS documents should
include:

Part 1     Overview of the STEP-NC (ISO 14649) family of standards.
Part 3     A library of Java functions.
Part 11    EXPRESS schema for Material Removal using Milling Machines.
Part 21    Application Interpreted Model for Part 11.

Siemens of Germany and Fanuc of Japan are implementing systems that
use these standards.

In the upcoming months the team plans to begin work on new models
for material removal using turning machines and grinding machines.


--------------------
Customer Feedback - v7 Libraries Three Times Faster

A customer in France has written an extensive applications using the
SDAI C libraries in ST-Developer.  The customer recently updated from
the libraries in v1.6 of ST-Developer to the libraries in v7 and
reports that the applications are three times faster.


--------------------
Version 3.0 of ST-Visualizer

The ST-Visualizer is a tool for visualizing STEP files. It uses a
customized OpenInventor interface to display geometries, product
definitions and assembly relationships.

With the tool you can:

1. Pick a shape and find its product definition in a STEP file.
2. Pick a face in a shape and find its geometry definition in the
   STEP file.
3. Pick an assembly, find all the parts in the assembly and
   display the geometry of each part.
4. Pick a product, find all its versions and definitions and
   display their geometry.

Version 3.0 of the ST-Visualizer extends Version 2.0 so that it can
display more geometries, more robustly. Particular effort has been put
into optimizing the internal translators so that they can process very
large files.


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

Introduction to STEP- A one day hands-on workshop for professionals
that need to know what STEP is and how it can be a key element in
solving your product data exchange problems.

April 12 - 9:00 AM to 2:30 PM in Troy, New York

Object Oriented Information Modeling with EXPRESS - The EXPRESS
information modeling language is widely used inside and outside of
STEP to describe object-oriented information models for Concurrent
Engineering, Mechanical and Electrical Products, Asset Management,
Laboratory Analysis, Geological Modeling and other applications. This
course introduces the student to information modeling, the EXPRESS
language and its companion EXPRESS-G language. Demonstrations and
class exercises are included in the course.

April 13 - 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM in Troy, New York
April 14 - 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM


--------------------
Translation Service 

Summary:
Period Covered: Sun Mar 14 03:25:02 1999 -- Sun Mar 21 03:25:02 1999
Total usage: 85
Successful usage: 78 (91%)
Errors: 7 (8%)


Translator	total	errors	success rate

acis-ap203	22	1	95%
ap203-acis	22	1	95%
ap203-stl	2	0	100%
ap203-vrml	3	2	33%
ap203check	6	0	100%
express2html	18	0	100%
gifviz		4	3	25%
step2xml	5	0	100%
steptoimage	3	0	100%

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

------------------------------------
Summary:
Period Covered: Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 1969 -- Sun Mar 21 03:25:15 1999
Total usage: 3625
Successful usage: 3180 (87%)
Errors: 445 (12%)


Translator	total	errors	success rate

acis-ap203	730	19	97%
ap203-acis	1400	143	89%
ap203-stl	96	34	64%
ap203-vrml	344	95	72%
ap203-xml	87	18	79%
ap203check	127	16	87%
expfront	124	17	86%
expfront2	81	0	100%
express2html	239	0	100%
expxfront	11	1	90%
gifviz		128	41	67%
iges-ap202	10	0	100%
sp203-xml	13	2	84%
step2xml	29	6	79%
steptoimage	194	49	74%
xml2step	12	4	66%


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

Our tools have been used to implement the STEP translators of EDS
Unigraphics, Bentley Microstation, Alias Wavefront, IRONCAD, CADKEY,
Boeing DCAC/MRM 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-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.

Database:
* ST-WebExchange -- STEP repository for product data translation,
  visualization, integration, and archiving.


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