[step-manufacturing] Minutes of November 28th conference call

[Martin Hardwick]

Attendees
--------------
Martin Hardwick, STEP Tools, USA
David Loffredo, STEP Tools, USA
Mikael Hedlind, Scania, Sweden
Magnus Lundgren, KTH, Sweden
Bengt Olsson, Sandvik, Sweden
Bob Erickson, Pratt & Whitney, USA
Fred Proctor, NIST, USA
Vincent Marchini, Ameritech, USA
Rudi Gruteke, ISCAR, Israel
Doron Cohen, ISCAR, Israel
Igal Naveh, ISCAR, Israel
Ian Stroud, EPFL, Switzerland
Partick Marchand, Cetim, France
Alain Brail, Albavis, France


We discussed a confidentiality agreement for the CAM to CAM Data 
Exchange Forum. The agreement is a framework for sharing results about 
the CAM to CAM translations that will allow the CAM vendors to 
experiment and not experience bad publicity. The first meeting of the 
new forum will be on Wednesday, February 13th in Orlando, Florida.

We discussed the impact of Part 21 Edition 3 on the ISO 13399 cutting 
tool standard. The new format does not change any principles of 
information modeling but, amongst many other advantages, it gives 
implementor's the opportunity to put common definitions into a common 
file where they can be defined once and referenced by everybody. For 
example, the standard definitions for the Imperial units such as inch, 
foot and yard can be defined once and put into a reference file by a 
national standards organization. Currently, every STEP file that uses 
English units has to include an inch definition which is always the 
same. Only a few entities are necessary and the processing code is 
already in place in all the CAD systems, but putting it into one 
standard place will save a lot of data when aggregated over millions of 
files and, assuming good URL names are chosen, make it easier for 
newcomers to read STEP files.

The ISO 13399 cutting tool standard also has definitions that will be 
common for all files. These definitions ensure that there is a common 
understanding for the key properties such as cutting tool diameter and 
functional length. Only a few entities are necessary to establish each 
definition but like the inch entities they will be the same for every 
single file.

We then discussed the more general issue of assembly modeling for ISO 
13399 cutting tool files. Vendors are starting to use ISO 13399 standard 
to create cutting tool assemblies but STEP has an assembly method that 
has been implemented by all the CAD vendors. The ISO 13399 assembly 
method is simpler and easier to implement, but the STEP method is more 
sophisticated, more generally available and more associative. In the 
long term the last quality may be significant because end users would 
like to view where and how a quantity such as cutting tool diameter was 
measured on the tool.

We then reviewed an extension to the STEP-NC model for toolpath 
complementation. The complements allow a toolpath to be adjusted for 
machine and setup specific inaccuracies when parts with difficult 
materials and/or thin walls are being machined. KTH has reviewed the 
requirements and developed an AP238 extension that includes a new entity 
for the STEP integrated resources. They are planning to test the model 
using the data developed by Concepts NREC for machining the impeller at 
the CCAT demonstration.

The NIST MBE summit will include a session on CAM data exchange formats 
on Thursday December 13. Martin Hardwick will make a presentation on the 
CAM to CAM Data Exchange Forum.

http://www.nist.gov/el/msid/mbesummit_2012.cfm

The next conference call will be hosted by NIST and will take place at 
the regular times on Wednesday December 12th. A recording of this 
conference call is available at the following ftp site:

ftp://www.steptools.com/private/Interoperability_costs/stepmanuf_telecon_20121128.wmv

Martin Hardwick
Team Leader ISO STEP-Manufacturing

Action Items
-----------------
1. ISCAR to review their functionality requirements for cutting tool 
assembly modeling.
2. KTH to review impact of Part 21 Edition 3 on references to PLIB and 
ISO 13399
3. STEP Tools to send impeller machining data to KTH