STEP Tools News for Wednesday April 10

[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 
at http://www.steptools.com


------------------------ 
STEP-NC and Pipe Bending 

The SBIR award for Pipe Bending awarded to STEP Tools requires us 
to investigate what product and process parameters should be added 
to STEP-NC for pipe bending and cutting.

http://www.steptools.com/pressroom/press_releases.html

Like all of the STEP-NC standards, the goal is to give pipe bending 
and cutting machines a higher level data interface that makes the 
machines easier to program and safer to use.

Like the other STEP-NC standards in the first phase this will most 
likely be done by moving existing CAM software onto the control. In 
this case the software will be the algorithms used by the shipyards 
and others to compute cuts and bends from design data.

One of the first tasks is to get industry input on the parameters. 
Therefore, we are organizing the following calendar of events

* Workshop to decide on process and geometry parameters (planned 
  for NIST on May 9) 
* E-mail exchanges on the results of the workshop with the pipe 
  fabrication industry. 
* Workshop and proof of concept demonstration at Electric 
  Boats Quonset Point facility (planned for July).

If you are interested in these events please contact us.


-------------------------------------------------------- 
STEP Validation Properties now in Production Translators

STEP is making sure that the geometry produced by CAD systems can be 
used where ever it is needed. The initial implementations of STEP did 
not even try to export full fidelity geometry and instead exchanged 
faceted data. Later a tremendous effort by Boeing and the aero-engine 
makers succeeded in making full 3D data exchange usable and since then 
the CAX/IF forums run by PDES, Inc. and ProSTEP have been making the 
exchanges more and more reliable.

The latest improvement is the addition of validation properties. These 
properties allow a system that receives STEP data to check its volume 
and area calculations for a part against similar calculations made by 
the sending system. If the two sets of numbers do not match then the 
exchange was not successful.

The CAX/IF forums started testing this extension well over a year ago 
and now it is beginning to be used in most production translators. 
The STEP Tools translators for ACIS and Parasolid also now read and 
write these properties and the next version of the ST-Viewer will 
include an interface that can be used to test the properties. 

http://www.steptools.com/news/020904acis4.html


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

Summary: 
Period Covered: Sun Mar 31 03:26:08 2002 -- Sun Apr 7 04:26:08 2002 
Total usage: 87 
Successful usage: 83 (95%) 
Errors: 4 (4%)

Translator total errors success rate 
ACIS to STEP: 14 3 78% 
STEP to ACIS: 22 1 95% 
AP203 Checker: 1 0 100% 
CEB XML Writer: 1 0 100% 
OSEB XML Writer: 1 0 100% 
Parasolid to STEP: 15 0 100% 
STEP to Parasolid: 33 0 100% 

======================================= 
All-Time stats 
------------------------------------ 
Summary: 
Period Covered: Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 1969 -- Sun Apr 7 04:26:34 2002 
Total usage: 15788 
Successful usage: 14372 (91%) 
Errors: 1416 (8%)


--------------------------- 
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 -- database programming services for sharing CAD 
  CAM and CNC information across the supply chain.

Programming Tools: 
* ST-Developer -- programming tools for writing STEP applications, 
  translators and databases. 
* ST-XML -- programming functions to convert STEP data to STEP XML and 
  business object data. 
* 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 dimension STEP data.
 
Consulting Tools: 
* ST-Consulting -- consulting services to assist in the development of 
  CAD, PDM and NC applications, translators, viewers, checkers and 
  databases. 
* ST-Training training courses designed to get decision makers up to speed 
  on the business benefits of STEP, and programmers up to speed on STEP 
  applications and products.


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