STEP Tools News for Tuesday June 26

Tue Jun 26 16:21:17 EDT 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 
at http://www.steptools.com

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USA, Korea and European STEP-NC Demonstrations

The following "Live" and "Video" Demonstrations of STEP-NC were given 
at the STEP meeting in San Francisco.

* The Europeans showed a STEP-NC video that featured CATIA being used 
  to create a STEP-NC database and a Siemens Controller being used to 
  manufacture a part from that database.
* The Koreans showed a STEP-NC video that featured a complete STEP-NC 
  manufacturing environment.
* The USA gave a live demonstration that used ST-CAM to convert STEP 
  data into STEP-NC data, and ST-NC to convert the STEP-NC data into 
  MASTERCAM data.

The success of these demonstrations means that Phase I Implementation 
Projects will begin in 2002. These Implementation Projects will be run 
by the industry leaders of the various industry segments (aerospace, 
automotive, military, shipbuilding, heavy-equipment). The projects 
will focus on the "final" prove out of the standard using industry 
processes and set the implementation guidelines and requirements for 
each segments supply chains.

-------------------------------- 
STEP-NC Interoperability Testing

With STEP-NC Phase I Industry Implementations about to begin, now is 
the time to think about conformance testing. Within the supply chain, 
STEP-NC users will want to know the following:

1. Whether a CAD or CAM system is producing a STEP-NC file that will 
   be interpreted correctly by STEP-NC controllers
2. Whether a STEP-NC controller will interpret a STEP-NC file 
   correctly and make the intended part safely.

STEP-NC testing is more "fun" than STEP testing because it involves 
manufacturing. For example, a reference STEP-NC controller can be 
implemented by a testing authority. A CAM system can be tested by 
sending data to this reference controller. If the part made by the 
reference controller using the STEP-NC file produced by the CAM system 
has the correct geometry within the allowed tolerance then the CAM 
system is correct. If the reference system cannot interpret the data, 
or the geometry of the part is not in tolerance then the CAM system is 
incorrect.

Similarly STEP-NC Controllers can be tested using reference files and 
reference parts. If a part produced by the STEP-NC Controller is 
identical, within the required tolerance, to the reference part then 
the Controller is correct. If the controller does not make the correct 
part or if the controller is given a "widow maker" file (i.e. it 
contains a fundamentally dangerous process plan) and it fails to 
detect the danger then the controller is incorrect.

A presentation containing some initial ideas on STEP-NC testing was 
given by NIST in San Francisco and is available on request.

--------------- 
CMM and STEP-NC

The roles of STEP-NC and AP-219 with respect to Coordinate Measuring 
Machines (CMM) were clarified in San Francisco. In summary AP-219 is 
to be used to describe the input and output data for a CMM machine, 
and STEP-NC will be used to control a CMM machine. The presentation on 
AP-219 given in San Francisco is also available on request. Both it 
and the STEP-NC presentations will be available in the 
STEP-manufacturing minutes when they are posted to the STEP Tools web 
site.

http://www.steptools.com/manforum/meetings.html

-------------- 
SDAI C Binding

The C language binding of the Standard Data Access Interface for STEP 
data has been sent to ISO for publication as an International 
Standard. This binding is the most widely implemented of all the SDAI 
bindings (others exist for C++, Java and IDL). An Implementation of 
the SDAI C binding has been included in ST-Developer since 1995.

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

Summary: 
Period Covered: Sun Jun 10 03:25:02 2001 -- Sun Jun 17 03:25:02 2001 
Total usage: 129 
Successful usage: 127 (98%) 
Errors: 2 (1%)

Translator total errors success rate 
ACIS to STEP: 32 0 100% 
STEP to ACIS: 41 0 100% 
AP203 Checker: 8 0 100% 
CEB XML Writer: 1 0 100% 
OSEB XML Writer: 2 0 100% 
Parasolid to STEP: 7 0 100% 
STEP to Parasolid: 7 2 71% 
Visualization tools: 21 0 100% 
Visualization Service: 7 0 100%

======================================= 
All-Time stats 
------------------------------------ 
Summary: 
Period Covered: Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 1969 -- Sun Jun 17 03:25:46 2001 
Total usage: 13576 
Successful usage: 12283 (90%) 
Errors: 1293 (9%)

---------------------------
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.

Data Management Tools: 
* ST-Repository -- STEP database with WSDL/SOAP services for sharing 
STEP-CAD, STEP-PDM and STEP-NC information with the supply chain.

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. 
* ST-XML -- programming functions to convert STEP data to STEP XML and 
business object data.

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 dimension STEP data. 

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