[step-manufacturing] Minutes of October 7 Conference Call

[Martin Hardwick]

Attendees
Martin Hardwick, STEP Tools, USA
David Loffredo, STEP Tools, USA
Vincent Marchini, Ameritech, USA
Aydin Nassehi, University of Bath, UK
Mikael Hedlind, KTH, Sweden
Fred Proctor, NIST, USA
Ronnie Fesperman, NIST, USA
David Odendahl, Boeing, USA
Sid Venkatesh, Boeing, USA
Bengt Olsson, Sandvik, Sweden
Alain Brail, Airbus (retired), France

1. We discussed the kinematics model in Part 105. This model has been 
radically changed in its second edition to make kinematic links, joints 
and pairs into representation items (see slide 15 in the URL below). The 
change gives these items the same status and position within the STEP 
infrastructure as other geometric and form feature properties such as 
datums and dimensions, and it fixes several representation issues that 
were discovered with the edition 1 resources making them difficult to 
use when representing some types of kinematic links (see slides).

ftp://ftp.steptools.com/private/Undecided/Kinematic_structure_representation_of_products_and_manufacturing_resources_2011-10-07_KTH_Hedlind.pdf

The change in Part 105 is radical because the information structure of 
Edition 1 is not upward compatible with the information structure of 
Edition 2. Therefore, any data that belongs to Edition 1 will have to be 
restructured for Edition 2. This almost never happens in STEP because of 
the importance of upward compatibility, but as far as we know the Part 
105 change should not be a problem because only STEP-Manufacturing has 
been making kinematics data so far.

KTH are testing the new edition by using it to  implement a 
bi-directional translator for machine tool kinematics data between NX 
and Catia (see slides at URL).

The new edition of Part 105 is being used in AP-242 which is replacing 
and unifying AP-203 Edition 2 and AP-214 Edition 3.  STEP Tools is 
updating ST-Developer and ST-Machine to read and write data defined by 
AP-203, AP-214 and AP-242.  This will allow us to use AP-242 to 
represent the workpieces and other geometric models in STEP-NC. It will 
also allow the CAD vendors who use ST-Developer to seamlessly upgrade to 
AP-242.

http://www.steptools.com/support/stpcad_docs/

2. We discussed CC4 implementation of STEP-NC. A set of slides was 
prepared showing four implementation options.

ftp://ftp.steptools.com/private/Undecided/Aydin_sc4-slides-1.pdf

During the conference call a fifth option was constructed by combining 
Scenarios 1 and 4. In the new scenario (see conference call recording) a 
CAM system is used to "automatically" generate codes for legacy 
machines. This implements Scenario 4 by using a CAM system (on or near 
the control) to create an intelligent machine, and it implements 
Scenario 1 because two CAM systems (the process design system, and the 
process execution system) are exchanging CC4 data.

We discussed how to demonstrate Scenario 5. We decided to enrich the 
Fishhead data set to create a CC4 example that can be read into 
different CAM systems to show the automatic and intelligent generation 
of machine codes.  Aydin Nassehi agreed to prepare a set of slides for 
the next conference call to show what kinds of information should be 
included in the enriched data set.

A recording of this conference call is on the ftp site.  The next 
conference call will be at the regular times on October 21.

ftp://ftp.steptools.com/private/Undecided/stepmanuf_telecon_20111007.wmv

Martin Hardwick
Team Leader