STEP AP242 PDM Implementor Forum

Introduction

The goals of the PDM Implementor Forum are to:

• Develop international PDM interoperability recommended practices documents, completing the international PDM interoperability standards,
• Establish shared test activities in the PDM area, based on agreed and reliable methods.

The objectives, missions and high levels principles of the PDM-IF are described in the PDM-IF white paper.

Details

Joint tests by developers as well as agreed best practices for users are the foundation for the interoperability of standards-based solutions. One of the main tasks performed by the PDM-IF is therefore drawing up best practices for implementing PDM2PDM collaboration scenarios, as well as CAD and PDM interoperability cases, based on the STEP AP242 XML Domain Model (new name of the Business Object Model for the Ed2, www.ap242.org) linked to ED geometry data. Based on the requirements identified in these use cases, implementation guidelines (so-called “Recommended Practices”) are created and validated in joint test rounds by the participating vendors. The PDM-IF is conducted jointly by prostep ivip and AFNeT associations. It enables strategic exchange of information and experiences for users and system vendors. 

The figure below illustrates the positioning of the PDM-IF:

 

The figure below summarizes the orgnization of the project, including the User Group (industrials), the Implementor Group (vendors), and their missions:
                       

PDM-IF Achievements

The STEP AP242 data exchange functionalities that have been covered by the PDM-IF test rounds and recommended practices documents are describe in the "Use Cases" page. The resulting recommended practices are available for download on this page.

In-progress and next

Three main use cases are in progress:

• Configuration Management: Product Configuration, including variants, diversity, specifications, effectivities, and conditions
• Alternate and Substitute Parts: exchange of alternative parts and part usages
  
• As-manufactured Measurements based on Part/Requirement specifications
  

The implementors will switch to the Ed2 and build on their work to enhance the support of multiple part IDs for supplier collaboration to multiple Documents and Occurrences IDs, as well as the support of complex properties and incremental exchange. This will include testing CAx-PDM collaboration scenarios with other implementor groups.

After gaining experience using Schematron Rules to check the conformity of the STEP XML data to the Recommended Practices, a new advanced quality check tool will be developed for easy adding of new rules, easy extraction of the report and high in performance.

Planning