A collaborative product data exchange environment based on STEP

Abstract

In the modern manufacturing context, CAD/CAM and CNC solutions are normally provided by different vendors, which gives rise to a heterogeneous application environment. Despite many integration approaches developed in the last decades, software integration and product data exchange are still challenging issues that need to be addressed. In this article, a collaborative product data exchange mechanism is proposed for a Distributed Interoperable Manufacturing Platform (DIMP). In this platform, STEP (ISO 10303) and STEP-NC (ISO 14649) data models are utilised to support the data flow. A novel data exchange mechanism is developed to provide the right amount and right level of product data subset to the users based on these models. This mechanism enables the users to work with a reasonable scope of product data, without interfering others. To realise this concept, data-extracting algorisms are developed to provide a customised data domain, and meta-data model compliant with STEP is proposed to guarantee data tractability. Moreover, synchronisation is catered for after the data set is processed.

Keywords:

• STEP
• STEP-NC
• interoperable
• data exchange
• product data sharing