NIDDESC-IGES Developments—Today’s Solution

1994 ◽  
Vol 10 (01) ◽  
pp. 31-38
Author(s):  
Burton Gischner ◽  
Gregory Morea

The Initial Graphics Exchange Specification (IGES) was first developed in 1980. It has evolved with continual improvements to the current Version 5.1 which was published in October 1991 [1]. Although IGES has proved to be a very valuable tool, difficulties have been encountered in using it for sophisticated transfers, such as for product models or complicated drawings. The long range solution to these difficulties is the emergence of the Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP). The Navy/Industry Digital Data Exchange Standards Committee (NIDDESC) has been a leading player in the development of this international standard. However, in the interim, NIDDESC is also spearheading the efforts to enhance the use of IGES by developing application protocols. Two of these application protocols, for 3D Piping and Engineering Drawings, are the first ones to be developed by the IGES/ PDES (Product Data Exchange using STEP) Organization (IPO), and will lead the way to more productive data transfer before the development of STEP. They will be referenced by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) standard for digital data transfer, MIL-D-28000 [2], and should greatly facilitate the occurrence of effective data transfer in these two disciplines. Furthermore, the use of these IGES application protocols is expected to provide significant guidance in the development of application protocols for the emerging STEP standard. This paper focuses on the development of these two application protocols, the involvement of NIDDESC and the shipbuilding industry (as well as the participation of other industry users and vendors), and the significant benefits to be derived from the adoption of these standards.

1994 ◽  
Vol 10 (04) ◽  
pp. 281-296
Author(s):  
James T. Higney ◽  
Joanne J. Ouillette

Draft STEP (Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data) application protocols, developed by the Navy Industry Digital Data Exchange Standards Committee (NIDDESC), have been issued to define the information content of a product model for a ship. The work reported in this paper combines the existing CAD models of the DDG51 Class design with a newly developed non-graphic database so that the overall information content complies with the STEP protocols. This work represents the first-time implementation of the application protocols and is a significant step in the Navy's plan to do the design of variants of the DDG51 Class totally in computer-aided design (CAD). The combined graphic/non-graphic database is referred to as the DDG51 engineering product model. Emphasis has been placed on populating the non-graphic database with the information necessary to perform all required engineering analyses. The basic schema described in this paper may be extended to support other areas of interest, such as logistics support.


1987 ◽  
Vol 3 (04) ◽  
pp. 264-273
Author(s):  
D. J. Wooley ◽  
M. L. Manix

Industry has long recognized the importance of computerized data exchange. The concept of a neutral exchange format is the key to an efficient and maintainable data exchange capability due to the number of dissimilar CAD/CAM systems in use today. The capability to exchange computerized design data provides the opportunity to eliminate many redundant activities such as recreating computer data from computer-generated paper drawings. The resulting improved communication of design data between contractors, subcontractors, customers, and operation and maintenance activities can reduce costs and upgrade fleet operations. This paper focuses on the need for and the methods used to develop a, workable computerized data exchange capability. Topics of discussion include the merits of electronic data exchange, the limitations of direct translators, and the benefits of a neutral data format. A project is presented that addresses various aspects of digital data exchange within the shipbuilding industry. Emphasis is placed on two working groups that address the digital exchange of design drawings and product model data using the Initial Graphics Exchange Specification (IGES).


2001 ◽  
Vol 17 (03) ◽  
pp. 151-160
Author(s):  
B. Gischner ◽  
B. Kassel ◽  
P. Lazo ◽  
R. Wood ◽  
J. Wyman

Evolution of STEP (ESTEP) is a task within the MARITECH-ASE Integrated Shipbuilding Environment (ISE) Project building upon the work of the MariSTEP consortium and the NIDDESC standards development efforts. The purpose of ESTEP is to validate product model standards for the shipbuilding industry, implement product model data translators, and to further the development of Shipbuilding Application Protocols. Three of the major goals of ESTEP are developing a production-quality ship structure data exchange capability, expanding shipbuilding piping implementation efforts, and the exchange of parts and part libraries. Piping applications between the plant design industry and the shipbuilding industry are similar, and the AP used for translation of plant piping data (AP227–Plant Spatial Configuration) is much further along in the ISO process than the ISO Shipbuilding Piping AP (AP217). Both application protocols have been analyzed to determine the feasibility of using the plant AP as the ISE piping data exchange model. Shipbuilding structures will be expanding on the MariSTEP implementation that was based on a subset of the detail design data model. This will include the development of a STEP conformance class, a subset of the data model that covers a particular ship life-cycle phase or business case. Parts and part libraries are a joint effort with the ISE Electronic Commerce (EC) task to define an exchange mechanism. The critical need for such a mechanism was identified early in the MariSTEP exchange effort. ESTEP plans to exchange library part definitions, including geometric, parametric, and nongraphic attribute data. The current status, the achievements, and the future implementation plans of the ISE ESTEP are reviewed in this paper.


1997 ◽  
Vol 13 (02) ◽  
pp. 111-124
Author(s):  
Jeff Wyman ◽  
Dan Wooley ◽  
Burt Gischner ◽  
Joyce Howell

Effective data exchange of product model data is essential for future competition in the global marketplace. Many efforts have been undertaken in recent years to establish a transfer mechanism for product model data in the Shipbuilding industry. These include the development of the STEP Standard, creation of the NIDDESC Application Protocols, and efforts of the European NEUTRABAS and MARITIME Projects. The ARPA/MARITECH Project for "Development of STEP Ship Product Model Database and Translators for Data Exchange Between Shipyards" provides a unique opportunity to attempt to implement the still developing Standards for Product Model Exchange and to enable their use for data exchange between the major US Shipyards. The project will create and populate a prototype product model database, develop translators for exchange of product model data between Shipyards, and facilitate adoption of the Shipbuilding Application Protocols as part of the emerging International Standard (STEP). These ambitious goals are being undertaken by a consortium of US Shipbuilders, their CAD vendors, and STEP experts. The participants will help develop a product model data exchange capability for the entire Shipbuilding industry, while they enhance their own ability to compete in the global marketplace.


2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (01) ◽  
pp. 44-52
Author(s):  
L. Benthall ◽  
T. Briggs ◽  
B. Downie ◽  
B. Gischner ◽  
B. Kassel ◽  
...  

An international standard (ISO 10303) has been created to facilitate the exchange of product models between diverse computer-aided design (CAD) systems. Informally known as STEP (standard for the exchange of product model data), this specification has been under development since the mid 1980s, and parts of it were approved as international standards beginning in 1994. Efforts to expand STEP to meet the needs of the shipbuilding industry have been in work for many years and are nearing completion. By early 2003, it is expected that four application protocols to facilitate the transfer of information relating to ship structures, piping, and heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning will have been approved as international standards and become part of the overall STEP standard. This article discusses the successful efforts to expand STEP to meet the needs of the shipbuilding industry, as well as outlining the various implementation and testing projects that have been undertaken to ensure the validity and success of these new standards.


Author(s):  
Fei Gao ◽  
Dieter Roller

Abstract Capturing design process is becoming an important topic of feature-based modeling, as well as in product data exchange, concurrent design, and cooperative design. Three critical issues on the modeling of design process are considered in this paper, namely, feature concepts, feature evolution, and the semantic consistencies of the states of product models. A semantics-based product model is introduced to facilitate the description of both conceptual and detailed models, and to maintain the semantic consistencies of product states. The process is represented by feature states and their evolution records. Feature type variation and prototype-based design are proposed to support feature evolution. A conceptual description of the design process and an example are given.


Author(s):  
K. C. Morris

Abstract The problem of sharing data has many facets. The need to share data across multiple enterprises, different hardware platforms, different data storage paradigms and systems, and a variety of network architectures is growing. The emerging Standard for The Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP), being developed in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), addresses this need by providing information models, called application protocols, which clearly and unambiguously describe data. The validity of these information models is essential for success in sharing data in a highly automated engineering environment. This paper describes the Data Probe: a tool for examining, editing, and managing EXPRESS-based data. The Data Probe tool supports the validation of STEP application protocols. The paper includes a description of the software architecture, the initial implementation, and plans for future enhancements. The software is designed as independent components which can be incorporated into other STEP-related systems or software requiring general purpose editing tools for structured information. The initial version of the Data Probe tool is based on two implementation mechanisms defined within STEP: the conceptual modeling language EXPRESS and the STEP exchange file format. Future work will focus on integrating a database system into the software. The software architecture and the use of object-oriented techniques enables code reusability and system extensibility and has been instrumental for a phased implementation. The software is under development at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and is in the public-domain. The software supports the Validation Testing System, part of the Application Protocol Development Environment, at the CALS-sponsored National PDES Testbed. (PDES, Product Data Exchange using STEP, is the U.S. effort in support of the international standard.)


1994 ◽  
Vol 10 (01) ◽  
pp. 39-50
Author(s):  
Richard H. Lovdahl ◽  
Douglas J. Martin ◽  
Michael A. Polini ◽  
Ron W. Wood ◽  
Michael L. Gerardi ◽  
...  

This paper presents the purpose, approach, goals and progress of the tasks that make up the standard for a digital Ship Product Model. The Navy/Industry Digital Data Exchange Standards Committee (NIDDESC) Standards will be a part of the Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP) International Standard. The STEP standard has a layered architecture in which basic core definitions are used by many industry and product specific standards such as the NIDDESC Standards.


1994 ◽  
Vol 10 (01) ◽  
pp. 24-30
Author(s):  
James Murphy

The use of computer-aided design (CAD) technology in the U.S. Navy and marine industry has evolved from a drafting-based design tool to a three-dimensional (3D) product-oriented information base, used for design, production and service life support. One of the most significant enhancements to current CAD technology has been the incorporation or integration of non-graphic attribute information with traditional graphics data. This expanded information base or product model has enabled the marine industry to expand CAD use to include such activities as engineering analysis, production control, and logistics support. While significant savings can be achieved through the exchange of digital product model data between different agents, current graphics-based CAD data exchange standards do not support this expanded information content. The Navy/Industry Digital Data Exchange Standards Committee (NIDDESC) was formed as a cooperative effort of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and the National Shipbuilding Research Program to develop an industry consensus on product data and to ensure these industry requirements are incorporated into national and international data exchange standards. The NIDDESC effort has resulted in the development of a suite of product model specifications or application protocols (APs) defining marine industry product model data. These APs have been submitted for inclusion into the next generation of data exchange standards.


Author(s):  
Yuhwei Yang

Abstract Traditionally, when the term “integration” is used to refer to the interoperability of disparate, heterogeneous computer system, it means the ability to exchange digital data between the systems. For the more sophisticated systems designers, “integration” may mean shared, distributed databases or a federated database system. Within the development of the Standard for the Exchange of Product model data (STEP - ISO 10303), “integration” refers to an information architecture composed of conceptual constructs that is independent of implementation considerations. The Integration Information Architecture of STEP is presented and explained. Instead of a flat representation of abstract (i.e., conceptual) data structures, integration within STEP takes place at four different levels: 1) Intra-Resource integrated. 2) Structural integration of Application Protocols through Integrated Resources. 3) Semantic integration of Application Protocols through Application Interpreted Constructs (AICs) 4) Operational integration through Application Protocols. Each level of integration and the relationships between the levels is explained.


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