Last updates of STEP AP203 (E2) and AP214 (E3) have been published in 2009.
Coming evolution is motivated especially by the needs of long term archiving of CAD data.
An initiative is promoted by LOTAR group, to favour a common effort as an alternative to parallel works on AP203 and AP214, resulting in a convergent application protocol.

This proposal is to define a new protocol : AP242, "Managed Model Based 3D Engineering", harmonized with AP203, AP214 and other widely used STEP protocols. It is mainly aimed to :

• introduce new capabilities of exchanging and archiving CAD data (case coverage),
• make them harmonized with existing STEP protocols (including AP203, AP214) and other standards involved in CAD (ASME, ISO in particular for PMI ..),
• optimize the work load and agenda of standardization and specification,
• make STEP easier to support and use in the industrial world,
• improve efficiency of processes by integrating the various enterprise functions.

As the last editions of STEP protocols, its definition will be modular, allowing further evolution and enhancements in a more flexible way.
It will gather the definitions in both AP203(E2) and AP214(E3) already, and extend them to new topics.
Among the proposals for extension of case coverage, we can notice :

• completions to PMI (including surface conditions, PMI in assembly), machining features,
• composite structures, electrical harness and piping,
• domain of PDM (Business Object Model),
• product data quality (quality criteria and check results),
• mechatronics
• and other topics involved in systems engineering integration.

A strong request is to have this new protocol soon available. In order to do so, the works of standardization are expected to be completed by validation works, to have the standard and its use rules jointly available, and help speeding up the implementation of software solutions.

As taking part in the work on long term archiving of the LOTAR group, DATAKIT keeps in touch with the advancement of works on AP242, taking its share by participating in actions of tests and validation.