STEP Tools News for Tuesday November 4
Martin Hardwick
hardwick at steptools.com
Tue Dec 5 15:33:37 EST 2000
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-NC "Super Model" Meeting
The third meeting of the Industrial Review Board of the Super Model
project was held at the Benet Laboratories of Watervliet Arsenal last
week. This meeting showed a manufacturing demonstration in which parts
were made by milling three kinds of features (hole, slot and pocket).
In the demonstration we used a CAD system to make product geometry, a
CAM system to add manufacturing instructions, and an NC Controller to
machine the part using the manufacturing instructions. We then proved
the flexibility of the new process by allowing a member of the
audience to define an engineering change in the CAD system. The new
geometry was then read into CAM system using AP-203, modified and
exported as a STEP-NC AIM file. The STEP-NC AIM data was then posted
to an Internet Web site and used by the controller to make the part.
CAD - The CADKEY system was used to define and modify solid models.
CAM - An advanced CAM system called FBMach (Feature Based Machining)
was used to recognise manufacturing features in the geometry
and annotate those features with manufacturing instructions.
SOAP - In next years demonstration there will be a world wide web
server that delivers manufacturing work plans to the NC
Controllers as XML objects. In this years demonstration it was
a person who used EXPRESS-X to map the STEP-NC AIM data for a
chosen work plan into XML.
NC - A windows based NC Controller read the manufacturing work plan,
generated tool paths and used those paths to control the machine
as it milled the part.
The point of this years demonstration was to show that you can go from
"Art to Part" much more efficiently using STEP-NC.
The goal for next years demonstration will be to prove that there are
no "gotcha's" in the new process such as unexpected restrictions on
the kinds of parts that can be milled, or insufficient flexibility in
the system.
-----------------------------------
Dimensions being added to ST-Viewer
The next version of the ST-Viewer will allow users to display the
dimensions of a AP-203 CAD part, AP-227 process plant part or AP-210
printed circuit board part.
---------------------------
Implementors Forum Web Site
Martin Hardwick became the chain of the Implementors Forum at the last
ISO STEP meeting in Charleston. The Implementors Forum web site that
was hosted by ATI Corp. has been transfered to STEP Tools, Inc. so
that we can maintain and extend it more easily.
There is a wealth of information on STEP and STEP implementation
available in this forum, so it is strongly recommended to anybody with
a technical background that wants to learn more about STEP.
http://www.steptools.com/impforum/
-------------------
Translation Service
Those of you who read the last letter will see that the sacrifice
worked!
Summary:
Period Covered: Sun Nov 26 03:25:03 2000 -- Sun Dec 3 03:25:03 2000
Total usage: 56
Successful usage: 56 (100%)
Errors: (0%)
Translator total errors success rate
ACIS to STEP: 33 0 100%
STEP to ACIS: 15 0 100%
Parasolid to STEP: 2 0 100%
STEP to Parasolid: 2 0 100%
Visualization tools: 1 0 100%
Visualization Service: 1 0 100%
XML to STEP: 2 0 100%
=======================================
All-Time stats
------------------------------------
Summary:
Period Covered: Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 1969 -- Sun Dec 3 03:25:41 2000
Total usage: 11225
Successful usage: 9990 (88%)
Errors: 1235 (11%)
Translator total errors success rate
ACIS to STEP: 2664 63 97%
STEP to ACIS: 3579 248 93%
STEP to XML: 87 18 79%
AP203 Checker: 713 48 93%
EXPRESS Checker: 11 1 90%
Parasolid to STEP: 429 121 71%
STEP to Parasolid: 509 143 71%
STEP to XML: 452 35 92%
Visualization tools: 602 148 75%
Visualization Service: 137 18 86%
XML to STEP: 103 21 79%
---------
Resellers
Resellers for STEP Tools products are available in the following
geographic areas. Please contact us if you would like further
information.
--France
Simulog, Sophia Antipolis Cedex
--Germany
EuroSTEP GmbH, Bad Aibling
--Sweden
EuroSTEP AB, Stockholm
--United Kingdom
Enabled Systems, Ltd, Leeds
EuroSTEP UK, Denbigh
--China
C-STEP, Beijing
--Japan
Open Systems, Inc., Tokyo
--Korea
Mani Information Systems, Inc.
--Taiwan
Exartech International Corp., Taipei
Axxon Technology, Taipei
INTEXS International,Virgina Beach Va.
---------------------------
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.
Database Tools:
* ST-Repository -- a database for e-manufacturing developed for the
growing number of mid-sized to large corporations that need to
sub-contract manufacturing tasks over the Internet.
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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