STEP Tools News for Monday April 12 (two days late)

Martin Hardwick hardwick at steptools.com
Wed Apr 14 16:23:38 EDT 1999 

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 Tools STEP-NC Proposal sent to ATP Program

Twelve months of preparation has resulted in a proposal called "Model
Driven Intelligent Control of Manufacturing" submited to the NIST ATP
program yesterday.  In a three year research program we will

1. Implement prototype translators for CAD/CAM systems.
2. Build an integrated database for ISO 10303 (STEP) and ISO 14649
   (STEP-NC) information.
3. Map the information into Product Data Components that will
   be managed as Enterprise JavaBeans on a Middleware system.
4. Connect the JavaBeans to a machine tool controller and use the
   information to control metal cutting using a milling machine.
5. Show all of the above to an Industrial Review Board in twice
   annual demonstrations.

In the first year, we will demonstrate a system prototype by removing
metal defined by two of the manufacturing features in ISO 14649-21.
In the second year, we will repeat for the rest of the features in ISO
14649-21. In the last year, we will extend the demonstration to material
removal using turning, grinding or EDM operations.


--------------------
ST-ACIS Library documentation on Web Pages

The ST-ACIS Library has been added to our catalog of on-line
documentation. The library defines coarse and fine-grained control
functions to control the translation of a STEP model to the ACIS
solid modeling kernel and vice versa. The library is easy to use
and has been included in the following CAD systems:

    Baystate 				- CADKEY 99
    Newport News 			- ws VIVID
    Hitachi Zosen Systems		- Grade/CubeII
    Visionary Design System 	- IronCAD

   http://www.steptools.com/support/stacislib_docs/


--------------------
Programming New Applications With ST-Developer

Learn how our most popular programming tool, ST-Developer, can help
reduce development time of your in-house STEP applications by 75%.
Taught by a STEP Tools developer with over eight years experience,
Dr. Dave Loffredo will show you how to use and implement the wide
variety of CASE tools during this intensive hands-on class.

Opportunities will be available to discuss all aspects of how to
program with the ISO 10303 STEP standard and to gain experience with
ST-Developer.  Bring your laptop and we will install a free 30 day
evaluation of ST-Developer!

   May 12 - 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM in Troy, New York
   May 13 - 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM 
   May 14 - 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM

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

Workshop Topics 

     10 Common STEP Tasks 
     Introduction to STEP Programming 
     Cutting Costs by Developing Reusable STEP Applications 
     Programming Information Models 
     Language Overview (STEP, C++ and EXPRESS) 
     Conforming to Standards such as SDAI 
     Tips on Information Modeling and Software Development 
     Reading and Writing Large STEP Files


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

Summary:
Period Covered: Sun Apr  4 03:25:07 1999 -- Sun Apr 11 03:25:07 1999
Total usage: 52
Successful usage: 45 (86%)
Errors: 7 (13%)


Translator	total	errors	success rate

acis-ap203	16	1	93%
ap203-acis	7	1	85%
ap203-stl	2	2	0%
ap203-vrml	3	2	33%
ap203check	12	0	100%
express2html	1	0	100%
gifviz		1	1	0%
step2xml	6	0	100%
steptoimage	3	0	100%
xml2step	1	0	100%

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

------------------------------------
Summary:
Period Covered: Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 1969 -- Sun Apr 11 03:25:21 1999
Total usage: 3819
Successful usage: 3347 (87%)
Errors: 472 (12%)


Translator	total	errors	success rate

acis-ap203	786	32	95%
ap203-acis	1432	144	89%
ap203-stl	100	38	62%
ap203-vrml	353	97	72%
ap203-xml	87	18	79%
ap203check	169	16	90%
expfront	124	17	86%
expfront2	83	0	100%
express2html	257	2	99%
expxfront	11	1	90%
gifviz		137	43	68%
iges-ap202	10	0	100%
sp203-xml	13	2	84%
step2xml	44	7	84%
steptoimage	199	50	74%
xml2step	14	5	64%


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

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-Repository -- STEP database with services for translation
  visualization, integration, and archiving.


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