ePLM Interoperability ASD Strategic Standardization Group

The objective of the “CAD 3D Mechanical interoperability” working group is to ensure the coordination and the consistency of all standardisation activities related to “CAD 3D Mechanical” interoperability, including Product Manufacturing Information (PMI).

This working group is part of the ASD SSG “PLM interoperability” domain.

The recommendations of the working group cover product information interoperability for the full life cycle of the mechanical part development, from specifications to maintenance and dismantlement. It covers all the interoperability functions based on open standards, such as:

• integration between heterogeneous authoring applications (upstream, downstream, ...)
• communication with the extended enterprise or with the customers,
• visualisation,
• long term archiving and retrieval,
• data quality,
• and migration.

This web page will be regularly updated.

Scope

 The following picture describes a generic process of development of mechanical part.

Nota: Same figure than for the AIA – ASD Stan LOTAR “3D PMI” working group
 

List of use cases

The following table list the use cases to be supported by the international standards for 3D geometry and Mechanical information interoperability.
 

         (*) LOTAR stands for Term Archiving and retrieval

Nota: for access to use cases for Long Term Archiving and retrieval, refer to the LOTAR “3D CAD with PMI” WG web page:

 http://www.lotar-international.org/lotar-workgroups/3d-cad-with-pmi.html
 

ASD SSG 5 years vision

The 5 years vision of the ASD SSG “Mechanical interoperability” working group is set up on three principles:

1)      Mechanical interoperability ensured by the availability of business requirements, use cases, public test cases, ISO information model, recommended practices and interoperability test rounds of CAD vendors COTS standards interfaces.

 The operational use of Mechanical interoperability standards by the A&D industries requires the availability of:

• Business requirements of the industry,
• Use cases for Mechanical interoperability, supporting A&D business needs and priorities,
• Public test cases for Mechanical interoperability, illustrating the use cases, 
• International standards for Mechanical Information models (Cf. principle 2)
• International and/or European recommended practices based on use cases, detailing the implementation of the ISO Mechanical information model,
• Interoperability test rounds of the standardised Mechanical interfaces and services of the different PLM vendors, through the participation in the CAx Implementer Forum.

2)      Reliable ISO Information models for Mechanical interoperability.

 The ASD SSG recommends the choice of a limited number of core harmonised ISO 10303 Application Protocols, having interdependencies properly specified and managed through the time, completed by other relevant ISO 3D visualisation standards..

The ASD SSG recommends the use of ISO 10303 AP 242 edition 2 as the cornerstone standard for mechanical information interoperability (Ref. ASD SSG Feb. 2015 statement).

AP242 is developed in consistency with: 

• STEP AP 238 edition 2 “Model based integrated manufacturing” - More information on www.ap238.org. 
• STEP AP 209 edition 2 “Multidiciplinary Analysis and Design” - More information on www.ap209.org. 

Planned operational use of ISO standards for Mechanical interoperability and long term archiving:

(N1) AP242 is the merge of AP214 and AP203

(N2) The following are outside the scope of this international standard (see related blip):

• The definition orimplementation of a run-time architecture for viewing and/or processing JT data
• Long-term data retention
• Non-facted geometry data exchange.
  

(N3) U3D / ISO PRC: recommendation of the ASD SSG for these 3D visualization formats in progress.

(N4) ISO 10303 AP242 ed2 is planned to be published as an ISO standard end of 2019.

Related standardization projects 
 

Related recommended practices

• CAx IF : Link to CAx IF
• JT IF : Link to JT IF