STEP Tools News for Tuesday January 23
Martin Hardwick
hardwick at steptools.com
Tue Jan 23 17:42:22 EST 2001
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).
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Top Ten Automation Technologies
STEP-NC has been identified as one of the top ten list of technologies
to watch as published by ARC advisory group: http://www.arcweb.com
1. Thin client HMI
2. XML
3. Java
4. Wireless and Bluetooth
5. Fieldbus HSE
6. Web Application Hosting
7. STEP-NC Machine Control Language
8. FireWire-based motion Control Networking
9. Publish/Subscribe technology
10. Advanced Ultrasonic technology
Many thanks to King Yee of Boeing for finding this citation.
--------------------------------
Hi Thru Demonstration
Last week the Hi Thru project gave a demonstration of rapid
manufacturing using a five axis high speed milling machine.
The demonstration at Cincinnati Machine (formerly Cincinnati Milacron)
showed how quickly and easily a 5-axis machine can be programmed using
manufacturing features. Programming a 5-axis machines is difficult
because a part programmer must determine optimium speeds and feeds for
complex geometry. The Cimskill system developed by Technology Answers
showed that such programming will become simple when the old M and G
code standard is replaced by STEP-NC.
In the demonstration Cimskill:
1. Read an AP-203 geometry file produced by Pro/E, Catia,
Unigraphics or any of the many other CAD systems that
support STEP.
2. Recognized manufacturing features
3. Defined a manufacturing process for each feature
4. Computed a tool path for each process
5. Computed the optimum speeds for each tool path.
6. Sent the result to a Cincinatti Lancer V5 machine tool as an
old style M and G code file (more on this below).
The demonstration did not use STEP-NC, however it was clear to the
audience that there were two stages to the optimization: computing the
manufacturing process; and computing the optimum speeds and feeds. The
first stage is independent of the five axis machine and should be
stored as a STEP-NC file.
The second stage depends on the machine and tools that are going to be
used to make the part. Obviously, if the tools available on the day of
manufacturing are high quality ones then the speeds and feeds can be
faster, and if they are not then the speeds should be less agressive.
This information is best computed on the machine tool using the
information provided by STEP-NC and an internal database desribing the
state of the equipment.
----------------------
Why STEP-NC
Thanks to the Hi Thru project we can now complete our list of business
reasons for adopting the STEP-NC:
1. 75% reduction in the time it takes an OEM to make a
drawing because they will not need to make drawings
anymore. Instead they will send 3D models annotated with
tolerances.
2. 35% reduction in the time it takes to make an NC process
plan (or part program) because the plans will be programmed
as manufacturing features instead of speeds and feeds.
3. 50% reduction in the time it takes to machine a part because users
will be able to use high speed 5 axis machines more often.
---------------------------
Translation Service
This service is free because we want to show you that our translators
are reliable and easy to use.
Summary:
Period Covered: Sun Jan 14 03:25:01 2001 -- Sun Jan 21 03:25:01 2001
Total usage: 54
Successful usage: 50 (92%)
Errors: 4 (7%)
Translator total errors success rate
ACIS to STEP: 5 0 100%
STEP to ACIS: 13 0 100%
AP203 Checker: 9 0 100%
CEB XML Writer: 3 0 100%
OSEB XML Writer: 1 0 100%
Parasolid to STEP: 13 0 100%
STEP to Parasolid: 2 2 0%
Visualization Service: 3 2 33%
=======================================
All-Time stats
------------------------------------
Summary:
Period Covered: Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 1969 -- Sun Jan 21 03:25:42 2001
Total usage: 11795
Successful usage: 10544 (89%)
Errors: 1251 (10%)
Translator total errors success rate
ACIS to STEP: 2736 63 97%
STEP to ACIS: 3701 250 93%
STEP to XML: 87 18 79%
AP203 Checker: 763 49 93%
CEB XML Writer: 22 3 86%
EXPRESS Checker: 11 1 90%
OSEB XML Writer: 9 0 100%
Parasolid to STEP: 462 123 73%
STEP to Parasolid: 557 147 73%
STEP to XML: 483 36 92%
Visualization tools: 619 148 76%
Visualization Service: 158 20 87%
XML to STEP: 106 21 80%
---------------------------
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.
Manufacturing Tools:
* ST-Repository -- a database for sub-contracting 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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