Graphical PMI visualized by the STEP File Analyzer and Viewer.
Credit: MBE PMI Validation and Conformance Testing Project
STEP (ISO 10303) is a widely-used standard for representing and exchanging data about manufactured parts and assemblies. NIST and the Systems Integration Division (SID) provided leadership for the first release of STEP in 1994, and continue to work to this day with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to extend the scope of the standard to cover more product-related data. SID also creates and maintains tools that make it easier for manufacturers, especially small- and medium-sized ones, to create and use STEP files and for software vendors to verify the contents of a STEP file. The most popular of these tools is the STEP File Analyzer and Viewer. The STEP File Analyzer and Viewer was created in 2012 and is continuously updated to fix bugs for new versions of the STEP standard, and to inform recommended practices for implementations. The most recent update, version 4.55, was released in August.
In a nutshell, STEP files are used to describe an ever-growing body of product information—like part geometry, tolerances, and assembly instructions—in a neutral format that can be exchanged between computer-aided systems, like computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing , and integrate those designs into the broader enterprise systems.
Engineers need a neutral format for describing and exchanging information about a product. Such a format lets engineering systems communicate with one another, making them more interoperable and efficient. Before the STEP standard was created, software vendors created physical and digital blueprints of products that they could read easily, but other vendors could not. This decreased efficiency in several ways. First ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
