[step-manufacturing] Resumption of conference calls with AP238 edition 2

[Martin Hardwick]

All,

We will resume the STEP-Manufacturing conference calls on Wednesday 
August 14th. There will be a quick report on the status of the CAM 
Tooling pilot, and then we will move on to the main item which is 
starting work on the second edition of AP238.

Here is our suggested list of enhancement for Edition 2.

1. Add the functionality enhancements computed during the ten years of 
testing: ftp://www.steptools.com/private/AP238e2/ap238_e2_20100618.ppt
2. Update the AIM to be compatible with AP242.
3. Open up the architecture to multiple types of files and technologies 
using Business Object Models (BOMs) and Part 21 Edition 3
4. Make the manufacturing operations modular and extensible (which 
methodology to use IFC, PLIB or Gears/3rd level objects?)
5. Integrate with ISO 13399 so that the tool attributes become part of 
the tool geometry.

The first edition of ISO 14649 and AP238 were to include a Java binding 
but we could not make it work. The issues have been resolved using WebGL 
and JavaScript. A very interesting proof of concept demonstration for a 
Boxy facing operation is at the URL below. You can download and run it  
by opening  the index.html in Firefox (IE support for WebGL is coming).

ftp://www.steptools.com/private/AP238e2/boxy-demo.zip

I look forward to talking with you all on August 14th. The reason why we 
are giving you two weeks notice is so that you can think about what 
should be included in AP238e2, and so that you can take the time to 
download the facing demo and think about the possibilities. What if we 
define all the different kinds of manufacturing objects in a plant and 
link them together in a manufacturing plan?

Martin Hardwick
Team Leader ISO STEP-Manufacturing