Implementation

If you are interested in developing a STEP processor or you want to be informed about the newest available STEP processors, you will find everything on this site. Boards exist for both, the CAD area and the PDM area. They are concerned with the implementation and stadardization of STEP processors. The CAX-IF has the task to track and advance the development of CAx STEP processors, while the PDM-IF focuses more on the implementation in the PDM area. You will find the relating Recommended Practices on the CAX-IF's home page and the Usage Guide and the STEP PDM Schema on the PDM-IF's home page. You can look up the currently available STEP processors in the respective synoptical table (CAD and PDM).

Implementatons of STEP technology have been realized early after STEP activities started in 1984. Since the first Application protocols reached the status of an International Standard (IS) of the ISO already in 1994, STEP implementations have been used in products at the latest from then on.

In Germany, where the focus lies on the description of data for mechanical and electrical engineering products, first implementations with the national "ProSTEP" project exist since 1990. Within the subsequent PDMI projects and the CAx Implementor Forum (former CAD Round Table), data exchange processors for CAD and PDM systems have been developed. The first internationally harmonized CAD processors used AP203 and AP214 CD stage. The first PDM STEP processors were based on the ARM (see What is STEP?) of AP214 CD stage. Implementations of AP212 exist since 1996, based on its CD stage.

Nowadays, AP212 as well as AP214 have become an international standard (IS stage), and implementations followed up. During implementation, usually so-called STEP-Toolkits are used. These are software engineering environments which simplify processor implementation. Besides application data models, the follwing parts of the STEP standard are used during implementation:

		Part 21 the format of STEP data exchange files
		Part 22 the specification of the SDAI, an API to access product data
		Part 23 the C++ language binding of the SDAI
		Part 24 the C language binding of the SDAI
		Part 28 the format of XML representations

In addition to the documentationen of all parts of the STEP standard, so-called Recommended Practices, Usage Guides etc., are available for certain functionalities, which aide the implementor in developing STEP software based on harmonized agreements. These additional documents do not have an ISO stamp, but evolve from international workgroups of implementors (Implementor Forum) and thus are widely agreed.