STEP Tools News for Tuesday October 31

[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). 


--------------------------------
STEP Usage Grows from 17% to 30%

Over the past year, usage of STEP for technical data communication at
one computer maker has grown from 17% to 30%. IGES continues to be the
most popular format for sharing technical data with the supply chain,
but at the current rate of growth it will be supplanted by STEP within
two years.


-------------------
GE, Alibre and STEP

Alibre has developed a Web-based mechanical collaborative
product development service for real-time collaboration between
global manufacturers and their suppliers, business partners and
customers. They recently announced a multi-million dollar contract
and investment from GE.

    http://www.alibre.com/news/pr/pr20001030.asp

Alibre is using ST-ACIS and ST-Developer to read and write STEP
data.  This press release is significant not only as the first
example of a "big win" by an Application Service Provider (ASP) in
Mechanical CAD, but also as an example of a company whose business
model depends on STEP interoperability.


-------------------
Implementor's Forum

The Implementor's forum is a group of experts that reports on
implementation issues to the international committee that is
developing STEP, PLIB and other standards for industrial data.
Traditionally, it meets for one day during every STEP meeting
to hear about progress on STEP implementation by various groups
around the world, and to discuss the views of implementors on
upcoming implementation issues. For example, during the Charleston
STEP meeting the group had its first discussion on STEP and XML.

After many years of excellent service, Larry Mckee of IBM has stepped
down from his position as leader of the Implementor's Forum, and
Martin Hardwick of STEP Tools was chosen to replace him. The mailing
list for this forum has been added to the STEP Tools forum page along
with forums for building and manufacturing using STEP.

    http://www.steptools.com/forums/


------------------------------
ST-Developer Memory Management

The next version of ST-Developer will include an enhancement that
allows DLL applications to shut down and return their memory space to
the operating system. The feature is useful for applications that run
for a long time since it allows them to shut down without being
unloaded from memory, and has been requested by customers who are
writing "husk" style applications using ST-Developer.


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

The results keep getting better!

Summary:
Period Covered: Sun Oct 22 04:25:02 2000 -- Sun Oct 29 03:25:02 2000
Total usage: 97
Successful usage: 95 (97%)
Errors: 2 (2%)

Translator			total	errors	success rate

ACIS to STEP:		20	0	100%
STEP to ACIS:		41	0	100%
AP203 Checker:		2	0	100%
Parasolid to STEP:	3	0	100%
STEP to Parasolid:	9	0	100%
STEP to XML:		16	2	87%
Visualization Service:	3	0	100%
XML to STEP:		1	0	100%

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

------------------------------------
Summary:
Period Covered: Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 1969 -- Sun Oct 29 03:25:38 2000
Total usage: 10797
Successful usage: 9578 (88%)
Errors: 1219 (11%)


Translator			total	errors	success rate

ACIS to STEP:		2535	55	97%
STEP to ACIS:		3492	248	92%
STEP to XML:		87	18	79%
AP203 Checker:		682	48	92%
EXPRESS Checker:		11	1	90%
Parasolid to STEP:	410	121	70%
STEP to Parasolid:	495	139	71%
STEP to XML:		426	33	92%
Visualization tools:	577	146	74%
Visualization Service:	130	18	86%
XML to STEP:		101	21	79%


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

The world's foremost firms use the STEP Tools product line to
help them share engineering product information.  Over one
million people use product data applications built with
ST-Developer, the company's flagship product.  In response to
this international popularity, 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 XML 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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