In the year 2009, the ProSTEP iViP association had launched JT-activities in close cooperation with the VDA (German Association of the Automotive Industry). Within the JT Workflow Forum project group, use cases for the application of JT in the context of virtual product engineering were specified. Based on these use cases, JT-translator benchmarks were initiated to investigate the quality of converted JT-data.
For optimized process support, two action points were identified:
P #1: So far, investigations were limited to the JT-format. However, not all requirements must address JT. For selective use cases, some of the necessary process supporting content (satisfying respective requirements), e.g. the product structure and according master data, can be provided by further formats in combination with JT. There is a need to analyze which contents are to be stored in JT and which contents are to be stored in accompanying formats (e.g. STEP AP242 XML). If JT and the accompanying format both provide containers for required content, there must be a unique understanding on which of the formats is responsible for the data. This is a prerequisite to application interoperability, in turn a prerequisite to the mentioned optimization of process support.
P #2: Further, there is a need to harmonize the form, in which the above-mentioned content is to be provided. In order to classify (JT or accompanying format) and harmonize content, it is first necessary to have a common understanding on the meaning of requirements, as both go hand in hand. In general, it can be said that contents satisfy requirements. In some cases, requirements are detailed enough to be actually synonymous to the content. In others, the necessary content describes a closer look into the requirement, hence detailing it. In either case, there then exist different forms to store the required contents.
For a prioritized subset of the JT Workflow Forum requirements, this document provides a proposal for the harmonization of contents.
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