Based on the recommendation for the Integration of Simulation and Computation Data in a Product Data Management Environment (SimPDM), which was published at the end of 2008 by the ProSTEP iViP Association and VDA, the document in hand aims to apply the SimPDM results to user scenarios, focusing in particular on collaborative and CAE/CAD integration.

With this purpose in mind, the C³I recommendation defines processes, relations and use cases which fulfill the requirements regarding communication and integration. This covers cross-enterprise and cross-domain scenarios as well as the interaction between authoring tools and data management systems. The recommendation also gives standardized definitions of CAE process modules and simulation data management (SDM) core functionalities. In order to enable system support, the recommendation also defines a general metadata model and describes possible system extensions. The metadata model is designed in a modular way to allow custom tailoring of solutions, and a mapping to existing data formats is given to illustrate how established interfaces can be extended to fulfill the requirements described in this recommendation. At the end of this document, descriptions of proof-of-concept implementations and the resulting experience are given.

The recommendation does not define an interchange format between different CAE applications.

The recommendation consists of several documents:
The main recommendation document (the document in hand)
Annex A: C³I Metadata Model
Annex B: Mapping of the C³I Metadata Model to other Formats
Annex C: Tabular Description of the C³I Plug-in

The annexes A, B, C are available for download as separate documents at the websites of the ProSTEP iViP Association (www.prostep.org) and VDA (www.vda.de).