STEP Tools weekly news for Monday August 9

Mon Aug 9 15:42:09 EDT 1999

Since 1991 STEP Tools has been developing tools and databases for
product data. 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).

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20,000 hits per week

Our web site gets 20,000 hits per week. Recently the number of new
visitors has been growing so we have added a welcome page that
introduces STEP and STEP Tools to new visitors.

http://www.steptools.com/welcome.html

----------------------
Internet Manufacturing

Our theme at this years CTS show (formerly AUTOFACT) is Internet
Manufacturing. We will bring spreadsheets and demonstrations to
show how STEP manufacturing applications on the Internet can
reduce the costs of production planning and manufacturing control
for a supply chain by 30%.

Please visit us in booth #2706 on September 14 15 and 16. We will
show you the results of five years investment in the National Industrial
Information Infrastructure Protocols (NIIIP) program and talk about our
plans for STEP-NC in a project called Model Driven Intelligent Control
of Manufacturing (not yet awarded).

Talks will be given on "Implementing Large Product Databases" on
Tuesday, and on "Product Data Application Servers" on Thursday.
On Wednesday we will host a press conference.

For show details see the top of our home page

http://www.steptools.com

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Response to Inexpensive Viewer Question

The article in last weeks issue attracted a lot of feedback.

"And so, assuming our CAD users could perform a function called "Save As 
STEP Model" in addition to the normal native format (CADDS5, PTC, SDRC,
Autocad, etc.), and this STEP file was easily imported into the PDM
system, and this STEP browser were easily integrated into the PDM
system, then I would expect that we might be willing to pay a 10-15%
premium over the going market rates for other 3-D browsing tools."

"A price 30-50% less than similar CAD system for
first release sounds a reasonable one. I'll consider to get a
copy of ST-Visualizer if the price for acedemic is
around $300."

"I think a sliding scale price is needed for a STEP viewer, as they are
likely to be bought in bulk. How about 2000 bucks for a single license going
down to 1000 bucks for multiple seats ?"

">>What do you think is a fair price for an inexpensive STEP viewer?
It will proabably be free from many sources within a year. Viewing has
become a commodity."

"My guess may not be very practical as far as you are concerned, but
I would say an "inexpensive" web viewer price might be $1000.00 or
less ($999.00?, $799.00?)."

"$400-500"

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Classes

To learn more about STEP and our tools check out the classes at the
following URL:

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

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Translation Service

Summary:
Period Covered: Sun Aug  1 03:25:02 1999 -- Sun Aug  8 03:25:02 1999
Total usage: 65
Successful usage: 50 (76%)
Errors: 15 (23%)

Translator	total	errors	success rate

acis-ap203	10	0	100%
ap203-acis	16	5	68%
ap203-vrml	5	3	40%
ap203check	7	2	71%
expfront2	1	0	100%
express2html	3	0	100%
gifviz		7	2	71%
para-step	2	0	100%
step-para	8	3	62%
step2xml	6	0	100%

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

------------------------------------
Summary:
Period Covered: Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 1969 -- Sun Aug  8 03:25:20 1999
Total usage: 5236
Successful usage: 4507 (86%)
Errors: 729 (13%)

Translator	total	errors	success rate

acis-ap203	1040	51	95%
ap203-acis	1881	199	89%
ap203-stl	120	43	64%
ap203-vrml	535	166	68%
ap203-xml	87	18	79%
ap203check	246	25	89%
expfront	124	17	86%
expfront2	114	0	100%
express2html	274	2	99%
expxfront	11	1	90%
gifviz		194	50	74%
iges-ap202	10	0	100%
para-step	51	29	43%
sp203-xml	13	2	84%
step-para	105	47	55%
step2xml	123	15	87%
steptoimage	275	53	80%
xml2step	33	11	66%

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Our Tools

Programming:
* ST-Developer -- programming tools for writing STEP applications,
  translators and databases. Used by Boeing to make 187,000 part
  lists.

* ST-Developer-J -- ST-Developer with SDAI Java programming tools.

* ST-ORACLE -- ST-Developer with SQL programming tools. 

* ST-ObjectStore -- ST-Developer with ObjectStore programming tools.

* 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 -- Global teaming database for design and manufacturing
  projects with services for standards based translation, visualization
  and application programming over the Internet.

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