ISO 10303 is an ISO standard for the computer-interpretable representation and

exchange of product manufacturing information. Its official title is: Automation

systems and integration — Product data representation and exchange. It is known
informally as "STEP", which stands for "Standard for the Exchange of Product model
data". ISO 10303 can represent 3D objects in Computer-aided design (CAD) and
related information.

Overview
The international standard's objective is to provide a mechanism that is capable of
describing product data throughout the life cycle of a product, independent from
any particular system. The nature of this description makes it suitable not only
for neutral file exchange, but also as a basis for implementing and sharing product
databases and archiving.[1]

Typically STEP can be used to exchange data between CAD, computer-aided

manufacturing, computer-aided engineering, product data management/enterprise data
modeling and other CAx systems. STEP addresses product data from mechanical and
electrical design, geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, analysis and
manufacturing, as well as additional information specific to various industries
such as automotive, aerospace, building construction, ship, oil and gas, process
plants and others.

STEP is developed and maintained by the ISO technical committee TC 184, Automation
systems and integration, sub-committee SC 4, Industrial data. Like other ISO and
IEC standards STEP is copyright by ISO and is not freely available. However, the
10303 EXPRESS schemas are freely available, as are the recommended practices for
implementers.

Other standards developed and maintained by ISO TC 184/SC 4 are:[2]

ISO 13584 PLIB - Parts Library

ISO 15531 MANDATE - Industrial manufacturing management data
ISO 15926 Process Plants including Oil and Gas facilities Life-Cycle data
ISO 18629 PSL- Process specification language
ISO 18876 IIDEAS - Integration of industrial data for exchange, access, and sharing
ISO 22745 Open technical dictionaries and their application to master data
ISO 8000 Data quality
STEP is closely related with PLIB (ISO 13584, IEC 61360).

History
The basis for STEP was the Product Data Exchange Specification (PDES), which was
initiated during the mid-1980s and was submitted to ISO in 1988.[3] The Product
Data Exchange Specification (PDES) was a data definition effort intended to improve
interoperability between manufacturing companies, and thereby improve productivity.
[4]

The evolution of STEP can be divided into four release phases. The development of
STEP started in 1984 as a successor of IGES, SET and VDA-FS.[5] The initial plan
was that "STEP shall be based on one single, complete, implementation-independent
Product Information Model, which shall be the Master Record of the integrated
topical and application information models".[6] But because of the complexity, the
standard had to be broken up into smaller parts that can be developed, balloted and
approved separately.[7] In 1994/95 ISO published the initial release of STEP as
international standards (IS) with the parts 1, 11, 21, 31, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 101,
AP 201 and AP 203.[8] Today AP 203 Configuration controlled 3D design is still one
of the most important parts of STEP and supported by many CAD systems for import
and export.

In the second phase the capabilities of STEP were widely extended, primarily for
the design of products in the aerospace, automotive, electrical, electronic, and
other industries. This phase ended in the year 2002 with the second major release,
including the STEP parts AP 202, AP 209, AP 210, AP 212, AP 214, AP 224, AP 225, AP
227, AP 232.[9] Basic harmonization between the APs especially in the geometric
areas was achieved by introducing the Application Interpreted Constructs (AIC, 500
series).

A major problem with the monolithic APs of the first and second releases is that
they are too big, have too much overlap with each other, and are not sufficiently
harmonized. These deficits led to the development of the STEP modular architecture
(400 and 1000 series).[10] This activity was primarily driven by new APs covering
additional life-cycle phases such as early requirement analysis (AP 233) and
maintenance and repair (AP 239), and also new industrial areas (AP 221, AP 236).
New editions of the previous monolithic APs on a modular basis have been developed
(AP 203, AP 209, AP 210). The publication of these new editions coincided with the
release in 2010 of the new ISO product SMRL, the STEP Module and Resource Library,
that contains all STEP resource parts and application modules on a single CD. The
SMRL will be revised frequently and is available at a much lower cost than
purchasing all the parts separately.

In December 2014, ISO published the first edition of a new major Application
Protocol, AP 242 Managed model based 3d engineering, that combined and replaced the
following previous APs in an upward compatible way:

AP 201, Explicit draughting. Simple 2D drawing geometry related to a product. No

association, no assembly hierarchy.
AP 202, Associative draughting. 2D/3D drawing with association, but no product
structure.
AP 203, Configuration controlled 3D designs of mechanical parts and assemblies.
AP 204, Mechanical design using boundary representation
AP 214, Core data for automotive mechanical design processes
AP 242, Managed model based 3D engineering
AP 242 was created by merging the following two Application protocols:

AP 203, Configuration controlled 3D designs of mechanical parts and assemblies (as

used by the Aerospace Industry).
AP 214, Core data for automotive mechanical design processes (used by the
Automotive Industry).
In addition AP 242 edition 1 contains extensions and significant updates for:

Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing

Kinematics
Tessellation
Two APs had been modified to be directly based on AP 242, and thus became supersets
of it:

AP 209, Composite and metallic structural analysis and related design

AP 210, Electronic assembly, interconnect and packaging design. This is the most
complex and sophisticated STEP AP.
The development of a second edition of AP 242 has started which is extending the
scope for electrical harness.

Structure
Main article: List of STEP (ISO 10303) parts
STEP is divided into many parts, grouped into

Environment
Parts 1x: Description methods: EXPRESS, EXPRESS-X
Parts 2x: Implementation methods: STEP-File, STEP-XML, SDAI
Parts 3x: Conformance testing methodology and framework
Integrated data models
The Integrated Resources (IR), consisting of
Parts 4x and 5x: Integrated generic resources
Parts 1xx: Integrated application resources
PLIB ISO 13584-20 Parts library: Logical model of expressions
Parts 5xx: Application Interpreted Constructs (AIC)
Parts 1xxx: Application Modules (AM)
Top parts
Parts 2xx: Application Protocols (AP)
Parts 3xx: Abstract Test Suites (ATS) for APs
Parts 4xx: Implementation modules for APs
In total STEP consists of several hundred parts and every year new parts are added
or new revisions of older parts are released. This makes STEP the biggest standard
within ISO. Each part has its own scope and introduction.

The APs are the top parts. They cover a particular application and industry domain
and hence are most relevant for users of STEP. Every AP defines one or several
Conformance Classes, suitable for a particular kind of product or data exchange
scenario. To provide a better understanding of the scope, information requirements
and usage scenarios an informative application activity model (AAM) is added to
every AP, using IDEF0.

STEP is primarily defining data models using the EXPRESS modeling language.
Application data according to a given data model can be exchanged either by a STEP-
File, STEP-XML or via shared database access using SDAI.

Every AP defines a top data models to be used for data exchange, called the
Application Interpreted Model (AIM) or in the case of a modular AP called Module
Interpreted Models (MIM). These interpreted models are constructed by choosing
generic objects defined in lower level data models (4x, 5x, 1xx, 5xx) and adding
specializations needed for the particular application domain of the AP. The common
generic data models are the basis for interoperability between APs for different
kinds of industries and life cycle stages.

In APs with several Conformance Classes the top data model is divided into subsets,
one for each Conformance Class. The requirements of a conformant STEP application
are:

implementation of either a preprocessor or a postprocessor or both,

using one of the STEP implementation methods STEP-File, STEP-XML or SDAI for the
AIM/MIM data model and
supporting one or several conformance classes of an AP.
Originally every APs was required to have a companion Abstract test suite (ATS)
(e.g. ATS 303 for AP 203), providing Test Purposes, Verdict Criteria and Abstract
Test Cases together with example STEP-Files. But because the development of an ATS
was very expensive and inefficient this requirement was dropped and replaced by the
requirements to have an informal validation report and recommended practises how to
use it. Today the recommended practises are a primary source for those going to
implement STEP.

The Application Reference Models (ARM) is the mediator between the AAM and the
AIM/MIM. Originally its purpose was only to document high level application objects
and the basic relations between them. IDEF1X diagrams documented the AP of early
APs in an informal way. The ARM objects, their attributes and relations are mapped
to the AIM so that it is possible to implement an AP. As APs got more and more
complex formal methods were needed to document the ARM and so EXPRESS which was
originally only developed for the AIM was also used for the ARM. Over time these
ARM models got very detailed till to the point that some implementations preferred
to use the ARM instead of the formally required AIM/MIM. Today a few APs have ARM
based exchange formats standardized outside of ISO TC184/SC4:

PLM-Services within the OMG for AP 214

ISO 14649 Data model for computerized numerical controllers for AP 238
PLCS-DEXs within OASIS (organization) for AP 239
There is a bigger overlap between APs because they often need to refer to the same
kind of products, product structures, geometry and more. And because APs are
developed by different groups of people it was always an issue to ensure
interoperability between APs on a higher level. The Application Interpreted
Constructs (AIC) solved this problem for common specializations of generic
concepts, primarily in the geometric area. To address the problem of harmonizing
the ARM models and their mapping to the AIM the STEP modules were introduced. They
contain a piece of the ARM, the mapping and a piece of the AIM, called MIM. Modules
are built on each other, resulting in an (almost) directed graph with the AP and
conformance class modules at the very top. The modular APs are:

AP 209, Composite and metallic structural analysis and related design

AP 210, Electronic assembly, interconnect and packaging design
AP 221, Functional data and schematic representation of process plants
AP 236, Furniture product data and project data
AP 239, Product life cycle support
AP 242, Managed model based 3d engineering
The modular editions of AP 209 and 210 are explicit extensions of AP 242.

Coverage of STEP Application Protocols (AP)

The STEP APs can be roughly grouped into the three main areas design, manufacturing
and life cycle support.

Design APs:

Mechanical:
AP 207, Sheet metal die planning and design
AP 209, Composite and metallic structural analysis and related design
AP 235, Materials information for the design and verification of products
AP 236, Furniture product data and project data
AP 242, Managed model based 3d engineering
Connectivity oriented electric, electronic and piping/ventilation:
AP 210, Electronic assembly, interconnect and packaging design. The most complex
and sophisticated STEP AP.
AP 212, Electrotechnical design and installation.
AP 227, Plant spatial configuration
Ship:
AP 215, Ship arrangement
AP 216, Ship moulded forms
AP 218, Ship structures
Others:
AP 225, Building elements using explicit shape representation
AP 232, Technical data packaging core information and exchange
AP 233, Systems engineering data representation
AP 237, Fluid dynamics has been cancelled and the functionality included in AP 209
Manufacturing APs:

AP 219, Dimensional inspection information exchange

AP 223, Exchange of design and manufacturing product information for cast parts
AP 224, Mechanical product definition for process plans using machining features
AP 238 - Application interpreted model for computer numeric controllers
AP 240, Process plans for machined products
Life cycle support APs:
AP 239, Product life cycle support
AP 221, Functional data and schematic representation of process plants
AP 241, Generic Model for Life Cycle Support of AEC Facilities (planned)
The AP 221 model is very similar to the ISO 15926-2 model, whereas AP 221 follows
the STEP architecture and ISO 15926-2 has a different architecture. They both use
ISO-15926-4 as their common reference data library or dictionary of standard
instances. A further development of both standards resulted in Gellish English as
general product modeling language that is application domain independent and that
is proposed as a work item (NWI) for a new standard.

The original intent of STEP was to publish one integrated data-model for all life
cycle aspects. But due to the complexity, different groups of developers and
different speed in the development processes, the splitting into several APs was
needed. But this splitting made it difficult to ensure that APs are interoperable
in overlapping areas. Main areas of harmonization are:

AP 212, 221, 227 and 242 for technical drawings with extension in AP 212 and 221
for schematic functionality
AP 224, 238 and 242 for machining features and for Geometric dimensioning and
tolerancing
For complex areas it is clear that more than one APs are needed to cover all major
aspects:

AP 212 and 242 for electro-mechanical products such as a car or a transformer. This
will be addressed by the second edition of AP242 that is currently under
development
AP 242, 209 and 210 for electro/electronic-mechanical products
AP 212, 215, 216, 218, 227 for ships
AP 203/214, 224, 240 and 238 for the complete design and manufacturing process of
piece parts.