STEP AP 242 makes model-based enterprises possible

Like JT Day, STEP Day this year was once again held as a live event, but with a few restrictions due to the increasing number of coronavirus infections. Approximately 60 people came together at BMW's Digital Campus in Munich to learn about the current status of standardization, cultivate existing contacts and establish new contacts. A further 15 people followed the event online in a Teams session. The participants were welcomed by Jerome Brun (BMW), who actively helped shape the event on-site.

The STEP standard was originally born of the idea of replacing standards, such as IGES, in the automotive and aerospace industry but has far exceeded expectations. It is now accepted in a number of different industries, said Dr. Alain Pfouga , general manager of the prostep ivip Association . Pfouga moderated the program of events together with Kevin Le Tutour ( AFNeT ).

Standardization must be made faster

In the keynote speech given at the start of the event, Dr. Frank Ramsak from BMW stressed the importance of standards for the carmaker. They are essential not only for collaboration with partners but also for collaboration with competitors. Times of change offer an opportunity to define new standards and make greater use of existing standards, said Ramsak. However, he also raised the question of whether standardization can keep pace with the speed of change.

The keynote was neatly rounded off by concrete use cases presented by Claudia Bodewig (BMW) and Dr. Marcel Shirvanian (PROSTEP). As part of the Spotlight joint venture with the Chinese carmaker Great Wall Motors (GWM), which builds the electric version of the Mini, BMW is using the STEP AP 242 standard to map the different product structures to each other and exchange them bidirectionally with GWM. The advantage of STEP is its best practices, said Shirvanian, but convincing the Chinese of this fact took time.

Use cases in the aviation industry

The presentation by Bernd Feldvoss from Airbus made it clear that it is not just in the automotive industry that STEP is proving its worth. The aircraft manufacturer not only uses the standard for the real-time data exchange with suppliers of cabin elements, who are often commissioned directly by the airlines, but also for the long-term archiving of legacy data using the application protocols AP 214 and AP 242. Another use case involves collaboration between the Airbus sites in different countries, which use different CAx and PDM systems for specific aircraft programs.

Kenny Swope explained to the audience what STEP AP 242 means for Boeing and its supply chain. The US-American manufacturer of commercial and military aircraft is undergoing a transition to a model-based enterprise (MBE) that is also impacting suppliers. As Swope stated, information must be allowed to flow freely in order to implement the digital thread in an integrated ecosystem. He went on to say that this requires numerous standards, and AP 242 is one of the mega standards that is used in different MBE domains. AP 242 is also relevant to long-term archiving.

Further development of the STEP standard

Dr. Max Ungerer (PROSTEP) described the current development status of AP 242 to the participants. Edition 3 has been completed and is currently in the process of being published by the ISO. In addition to providing support for agile development methods, the enhancements in Edition 4 include the mapping of product manufacturing information (PMI) at assembly level, visual issue management, the replacement of fasteners, composites, hybrid geometry models and improvements in the field of electrical wiring (EWIS). Edition 4 is scheduled for completion next year.

The prostep ivip Association is working closely together with the French AFNeT and the US-American PDES, Inc. on further developing the different STEP application protocols. The three organizations maintain different interoperability forums, each comprising a user and an implementor group, for this purpose. The MBx Interoperability Forum is a joint umbrella organization that helps coordinate their work better. Phil Rosche explained how the forum works to the participants. The aim of the MBx IF is to bring users and vendors from different domains closer together.

Topics currently addressed by the interoperability forums

The presentation by Pierre DUCHIER (Airbus) and Jochen Boy (PROSTEP) illustrated just how many different topics the CAx IF alone deals with. The forum's backlog currently comprises 70 user stories with 12 capabilities and 37 features. These include product manufacturing information, which is not only a CAD-specific topic but also a PLM-related topic. This is because in the aviation sector in particular certain manufacturing information is managed in the PLM context. Other topics include combining B-REP and tessellated geometry, providing support for kinematic mechanisms and mapping user-defined features (UDF).

First and foremost, the PDM IF takes care of managing product structures, metadata and references to CAD data and other documents, as Guillaume Hirel (T-Systems) and Frederic Darre (Airbus) explained. One of the more complex use cases examined in multiple rounds of testing is the exchange of product configurations between OEMs and suppliers who work with different PLM systems. The Alternate and Substitute Parts use case is somewhat different and involves defining parts that a plant can use as alternatives depending on availability or the supplier's price.

Lothar Klein (LK SoftWare GmbH) presented the topics that the EWIS IF is tackling at the STEP Day for what was the first time. Electrical wiring was added to STEP AP 242 in 2020 to address the long-term archiving requirements of the aircraft industry. One of the challenges that the EWIS IF faces is the flexible nature of wiring, which does not take its definitive geometric form until the wire harness is installed in a vehicle or aircraft. In addition, the information about the length and location of the cables is not found in the ECAD system but in the MCAD system. As a first step, the EWIS IF has extended the AP 242 data model for the electrical wiring harness (EWH) in such a way that it can replace the old AP 212 and also cover the capabilities of standards such as VEC and KBL.

Acceptance in the software industry

STEP Day also provided a good overview of the standard’s level of acceptance in the IT and software industry and the range of functions that the vendors are currently implementing in their products.

• 3DxSuite from Elysium , which specializes in 3D interoperability, can now also read in sematic PMIs at assembly level and placeholders for PMI representations from STEP as well as write them in the STEP format. Support for kinematics is in the pipeline.
• In addition to interfaces to leading CAD and PLM systems, T-Systems’ COMPDM platform for the exchange, migration and long-term archiving of CAD and PLM data also provides modules for importing STEP data. Support is also provided for latest use cases tested by the PDM IF.
• CoreTechnologie, which develops CAD converters, CAD viewers and additive manufacturing software, offers even better support for reading in semantic PMI, composites and wire harnesses.
• Threedy, which develops middleware for the immediate visualization of 3D data, presented a number of use cases in Munich that use STEP XML in combination with JT to dynamically structure the product configurations to be displayed.
• Siemens Digital Industries Software has supported STEP standardization and the activities carried out by the prostep ivip Association for many years. The PLM vendor's software is now able to import, visualize and export kinematic mechanisms via AP 242 XML. Datakit, solutions d'échanges de données techniques , which develops software for converting and exchanging CAx and PLM data, now also processes user-defined attributes, PDM features, PMI graphics representations and associated dimensions for drill-hole features.
• PROSTEP AG presented version 9.x of its OpenPDM PLM integration platform, which is now even easier to configure thanks to graphical modeling tools. The platform currently supports all the practices for exchanging assemblies and configurations recommended in Editions1 and 2 of STEP AP 242.
• 达索系统 is actively involved in a variety of implementor forums via AFNeT. The PLM vendor is currently working on improving support for user-defined attributes and composites. The company is also developing an enterprise IP exchange service based on STEP AP 242.
• Jotne , a Norwegian company that develops STEP-based data management software, presented an AI-based solution that automatically generates routings for the manufacture of cable connections. The tool also includes a converter that converts XML data from VEC to STEP AP 242.

In his closing remarks, Alain Pfouga thanked the speakers for their presentations and invited interested parties to make an active contribution to the work being performed by the different interoperability forums. In the coming weeks and months, this work will be shaped by the implementation of the recommendations in AP 242 Edition 4.