![]() With only a few exceptions did any of the translators fail to operate effectively. Moreover, these translators have been tested for conformance and interoperability. STEP has officially taken its place.īy July 2000, every major and almost all minor CAD system vendors had STEP translators in the latest releases of their CAD products. Because the STEP standards are now sufficiently developed to cover all of the original purposes of IGES, IGES will receive no further development and refinement. For the last 15 years, various groups and committees (mostly comprising users rather than vendors) have been meeting regularly to develop standards for product data models. The international standards covering these product data models became known as STEP. Companies with unlike CAD systems could not exchange CAD data. A design created on a Computervision system was meaningless to an Applicon system, for example. The computer-aided design (CAD) systems used to create these digital design files were not compatible with each other. Moreover, the digital nature of the design file allowed it to contain much more information in a much more flexible format. ![]() These time savings more than made up for the extra time it took to prepare. Although creating the original design file might take longer than preparing the engineering drawing on paper, the design file could be quickly copied, modified, printed and otherwise manipulated. The completed design could be saved as a digital file. Instead of drawing lines and segment of circles on paper to make graphic representations of what a product should look like, they started making those lines and arcs on a computer screen. IGES had its start 20 years ago when designers and engineers were turning to computers to create product designs. STEP is about sharing data, allowing parties to work together by communicating information interactively. IGES was about exchanging data and only the data contained in graphics files. IGESTo understand STEP NC and where it's headed, a look at STEP and its relationship to IGES is the place to begin. All that the machine tool controller will need is the digital product model represented by the 3D image on the Web page. NC part programs as we've known them for almost 50 years will become passe. The spindle motor starts to whir, axes begin to move, coolant spurts out and chips are soon bouncing off the Lexan panels in the machine guarding.Īccording to efforts underway right now, it won't be long-a couple of years at most-before this scenario depicts how most shops will be running their machine tools. Then it's a click on the CYCLE START button. You click on an icon in the task bar and check a few parameters and default settings on a pop-up window. From a menu on the home page, you select one of the databases it accesses. Imagine this: You call up a Web browser on the PC-based CNC at your machine tool. This software will enable it to interpret the super model database and use the information to machine the part without a conventional G-code program. A Bridgeport V3XT milling machine like this one is being outfitted with a CNC customized with special software.
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