STEP AP242 protocol

Last updates of STEP AP203 (E2) and AP214 (E3) have been published in 2009.
A evolution of STEP has been published end of 2014 : AP242. It was especially motivated by the needs of long term archiving of CAD data.
It results from an initiative 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 initiative has led to the definition of a new protocol: AP242, "Managed Model Based 3D Engineering", harmonising AP203, AP214 and other widely used STEP protocols. Since then, new versions have further enhanced the functionality available to :

  • introduce new capabilities of exchanging and archiving CAD data,
  • harmonize them 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 company's various functions.

Like the latest editions of STEP protocols, its definition is modular, enabling it to evolve and expand more flexibly.
It gather the definitions of both AP203(E2) and AP214(E3), and extend them to new topics.
Among the planned extension of case coverage, we can notice :

  • complements to PMI (including surface conditions, PMI in assembly), machining features,
  • tessellation, allowing STEP to support a light visualization model in an efficient way,
  • 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.

This introduces new definitions (entity types), and also a new mechanism allowing to describe references between elements of several model written on separate files (external element references).

As taking part in the work on long term archiving of the LOTAR group, DATAKIT is involved in works on AP242

  • from the start of AP242, pilot projects, actions of tests and validation.
  • for any AP242 Edition, participation in works groups (in particular geometry, PMI).

A public presentation of the STEP AP242 project can be seen on line : site of STEP AP242 Project.

STEP AP203 and AP214