STEP Tools News for Monday September 11

[Martin Hardwick]

This 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).


-------------------------------------
First Demonstration of STEP-NC in USA

The first STEP-NC demonstration will be held on November 30, 2000 at
the Benet Laboratories of Watervliet Arsenal. Watervliet Arsenal is
the oldest manufacturing arsenal in the USA.  Founded in 1812 as the
USA's response to the better cannon of the Royal Navy, the Watervliet
Arsenal can claim to be the oldest high tech manufacturing facility in
the United States.

The demonstration will feature an FB Mach CAM system being used to
make the STEP-NC data, and a Bridgeport Machine Tool controller being
used to make the part.  FB Mach is a Computer Aided Manufacturing
system developed by Honeywell for the Department of Energy.  In the
demonstration it will read STEP file from a CAD system, an operator
will use its advanced feature recognition capabilities to compute a
manufacturing plan, and the result will be written as a STEP file
containing all the information required to make a part.

The Super Model will read the data written by FB Mach and add the
information to its database. A Bridgeport Controller modified by
Electro-Mechanical Integrators (EMI) will then use the Intelligent
Interface of the Super Model to read the manufacturing data. The
Intelligent Interface will find just the information necessary for a
milling machine to make the part, and it will present that information
in a form that it easy to process on a Windows based control.


-------------
Record Month!

This will be the best month in the history of STEP Tools. Why? No one
knows for certain but the following seem to be good reasons:

1. End users are begining to trust STEP. AP203/214 translators have
   been available for most of the major CAD systems for at least a
   year.  The managers in the major engineering companies are
   beginning to notice this and STEP Tools is being asked to
   participate in a lot of testing projects.

2. A series of new Application Protocols is about to be released on
   the market and STEP Tools is being asked to help CAD vendors
   implement these protocols. They include AP-209 for finite element
   analysis, AP-210 for printed circuit boards, AP-212 for cable wire
   harnessing, AP-214 for automotive design, and AP-227 for the
   spatial configuration of process plants.

3. STEP is growing beyond CAD into CAM and NC Control. The existing
   standards for NC Control (M and G codes) were invented in the
   1950's when paper tape was the most popular storage medium. It now
   seems inevitable that STEP is going to replace these standards with
   3D model data allowing machine shops to reduce their set up times
   by approximately 37% and original equipment manufacturers to reduce
   the time they spend preparing data by up to 75%. STEP Tools is
   being asked to run pilot projects to prove these savings.


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

Summary:
Period Covered: Sun Sep  3 03:25:03 2000 -- Sun Sep 10 03:25:03 2000
Total usage: 44
Successful usage: 41 (93%)
Errors: 3 (6%)


Translator			total	errors	success rate

ACIS to STEP:		16	0		100%
STEP to ACIS:		12	0		100%
AP203 Checker:		2	0		100%
Parasolid to STEP:	5	0		100%
STEP to XML:		1	0		100%
Visualization tools:	7	3		57%

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

------------------------------------
Summary:
Period Covered: Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 1969 -- Sun Sep 10 03:25:37 2000
Total usage: 10272
Successful usage: 9071 (88%)
Errors: 1201 (11%)


Translator			total	errors	success rate

ACIS to STEP:		2382	55		97%
STEP to ACIS:		3328	248		92%
STEP to XML:		87	18		79%
AP203 Checker:		670	48		92%
EXPRESS Checker:		11	1		90%
Parasolid to STEP:	387	120		68%
STEP to Parasolid:	461	132		71%
STEP to XML:		391	30		92%
Visualization tools:	531	141		73%
Visualization Service:	104	16		84%
XML to STEP:		94	21		77%

---------------------------
Tools From STEP Tools, Inc.

The STEP Tools product line is used by the world's foremost firms to
leverage STEP technology to facilitate the sharing of engineering
product information. Over one million end users utilize product
data applications built with ST-Developer, the company's flagship
product. In response to its international popularity, the ST-Repository
is a database for e-manufacturing developed for the growing number
of mid-sized to large corporations that need to share design and
manufacturing information on the Internet.

Database Tools:
* ST-Repository -- Global teaming database for design and manufacturing
  projects with services for Internet Translation, Universal Visualization
  and Enterprise Integration.

Programming Tools:
* ST-Developer -- programming tools for writing STEP 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.

Desktop Tools:
* 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 view, analyze and check the accuracy of
  STEP data.


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