STEP Tools News for Tuesday February 29

[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).

This weeks letter contains a summary of the STEP meeting in Melbourne
Australia. It is not complete because it is impossible for one person
to attend all the events.


----------------------
EXPRESS-X in Melbourne 

EXPRESS-X is a mapping language that makes it easy for users to
create object models from the STEP models. ST-Repository uses
it to deliver STEP data to application programs in XML, Java,
C++ or UML objects. 

The EXPRESS-X group met for much of the week. Extensions were
made to Conformance Class 1 (Views) and Conformance Class 2 (Maps).
In the opinion of the technical committee the language is ready 
for CD review and it will be submitted to SC4 after the remaining
editing issues have been resolved.


--------------------
STEP-NC in Melbourne

STEP-NC is an extension of STEP for controlling NC processes such
as Milling, Turning, EDM and Measurement. Tentative aggreement was
reached to release each STEP-NC standard in three phases:

    Phase 1 - Requirements Model
    Phase 2 - STEP Integrations
    Phase 3 - Application Binding

The Requirements Model phase will show how the information requirements
of a STEP-NC process (such as material removal using milling machines)
will be met by the new standard.

The STEP Integration phase will show how the information requirements 
are met by a new STEP data exchange (Part 21) and data sharing (Part 22)
standard.

The Application Binding phase will define how the STEP data will be
manipulated within the context of a particular programming environment
such as an OMAC implementation in Java or an OMAC implementation on
Windows CE. (OMAC is the Open Modular Architecture for Contollers).


----------------
XML in Melbourne

The SC4 group that is studying how to implement STEP using XML met all
week during the Melbourne meeting. They are proposing that Part 28 of
STEP should define four XML bindings:

* A late binding that encodes an EXPRESS model and data instances
  using a generic, schema independent format.
* An early binding that seeks to capture all of the semantics of
  the EXPRESS model in the XML data.
* An early binding that seeks to efficiently transport STEP data
  into programming environments.
* An early binding that translates EXPRESS into UML and then uses
  an XML binding defined for UML to transport the data.

All of these bindings were under development before the release which
happened immediately after the Melbourne meeting.

    http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-1/
    http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/WD-xmlschema-0-20000225/


-------------------------------------------
ST-Viewer, ST-ACIS and ST-Parasolid Testing

The current round of PDES, Inc. sponsored CAx-IF data exchange testing
is focusing on:

* Production models supplied by the PDES, Inc. member companies.
* Color information.
* Round hole and thread features.
* Validation Properties (so that exchange files can be self-testing)

In this round we are testing ST-Viewer, ST-ACIS and ST-Parasolid.
ST-Viewer is our inexpensive tool for viewing STEP data. ST-ACIS and
ST-Parasolid are available as translators and libraries and have been
incorporated into many CAD systems.


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

Summary:
Period Covered: Sun Feb 20 03:25:04 2000 -- Sun Feb 27 03:25:04 2000
Total usage: 115
Successful usage: 94 (81%)
Errors: 21 (18%)

Translator	total	errors	success rate

ACIS to STEP:		25	1	96%
STEP to ACIS:		15	2	86%
AP203 Checker:	47	5	89%
Parasolid to STEP:	5	1	80%
STEP to Parasolid:	4	1	75%
STEP to XML:		6	3	50%
Visualization tools:	8	8	0%
Vis Service:		2	0	100%
XML to STEP:		1	0	100%

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

------------------------------------
Summary:
Period Covered: Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 1969 -- Sun Feb 27 03:25:31 2000
Total usage: 8099
Successful usage: 6872 (84%)
Errors: 1227 (15%)


Translator	total	errors	success rate

ACIS to STEP:		1763	64	96%
STEP to ACIS:		2623	281	89%
STEP to XML:		87	18	79%
AP203 Checker:	573	48	91%
EXPRESS Checker:	11	1	90%
Parasolid to STEP:	243	123	49%
STEP to Parasolid:	288	140	51%
STEP to XML:		265	41	84%
Visualization tools:	389	104	73%
Vis Service:		36	8	77%
XML to STEP:		72	25	65%

---------
Our Tools

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

* ST-Visualizer Library -- programming functions to visualize STEP
  data.

Desktop:
* 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-Viewer -- desktop tool to check and view STEP data.

Database:
* ST-Repository -- Build to Print Services for the supply chain
  including CAD translation, Internet viewing, Desktop viewing,
  Manufacturing feature editing and Manufacturing tool selection. 


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