Have you tried Solid works? I'm not sure of STEP AP-108/111 but i'm pretty sure it supports STEP AP-203/214. So you if you can find a way to save it in that format you should be okay on Solidworks.

Thank you for your answer.

I'm very familiar with STEP AP-203 and AP-214 and the different editions 1, 2. I wasn't able to find an implementation in a CAD.CAM system that supports the storage of the feature history. Most CAD/CAM packages (including SolidWorks) circumvent this problem by offering a module that allows the user to make modifications through techniques called direct modeling, flexible modeling or even subdivision modeling. Some CAD/CAM systems allow the user to import a native format from another CAD/CAM system while retaining the feature list.

My interest is specific in the transfer of features independent of the CAD kernel (Granite, CGM, Parasolid, ACIS, ...) that is used. Hence my interest in STEP AP-108 and STEP AP-111.

First of all, a technical correction. ISO10303-108 and ISO10303-111 are not AP:s. In the STEP world, AP stands for Application Protocol. ISO10303, The Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP) is a multi-part standard which consists of separate standards which specifies; Description & Implementation Methods, Conformance Testing Resources, General Resources & Application Resource Models, and Application Protocols. Development and management of ISO10303 is done within ISO TC184/SC4. There are a number of published AP:s (e.g. ISO10303-203, ISO 10303-238, ISO 10303-242 etc.) which all are published as parts of ISO10303. The AP:s describe a schema for exchanging product data using a language called EXPRESS. Any product data described by an EXPRESS schema can be exchanged between different APs. Hence the STEP APs support both different and shared activities for creating and using product data in different engineering domains. ISO10303-108 and ISO10303-111 are not APs. They are instead so called Integrated Application Resources. Together with the Integrated Resources and the Application Interpreted Constructs, they constitute the STEP Resource Schemas which are a shared library of common definitions that are used when putting together an AP. As the STEP Resource Schemas not are intended for direct implementation for product data exchange between CAx system you will not find any software packages that supports ISO10303-108 and 111 in the way I believe you want to use them. The exchange of feature data will be done via an AP which make use of p108 and p111. To make it further complicated, ISO10303-214 Core Data for Automotive Design has been supporting exchange of form features for many years. However, none of the CAD vendors have so far implemented support for exchange of form features in their translators. Why? I do not know, but probably because Industry has not requested them to do that. ISO10303-214 will be replaced by the new ISO10303-242 Application Protocol For Managed Model-based 3D Engineering. This standard which currently is under development is a merging of ISO10303-214 and ISO10303-203 Configuration Controlled 3D design. There is lot of informative material about STEP and its different parts available on the Internet. ISO10303-242 has for instance its own site: http://www.ap242.org.

Best regards

Magnus Lundgren

Magnus Lundgren, thank you very much for your explanation. It is by far the best explanation about STEP I've read so far. It seems I've been looking at my problem the wrong way around.

Perhaps the exchange of feature data is never implemented because many companies consider the feature tree to be part of their intellectual property (I have known two companies who worked together, were both using the same CAD package and refused to exchange the original CAD data or even STEP files because in their opinion these formats contained too much company specific data which was considered their intellectual property so they used IGES instead).

Hello all,

As i know AP214 contains geometry, topology and tolerances. Which software can generate AP214 with tolerances that can be used for downstream activities such as process planning ?

Best regards

Qussama - I´m not expert in this (there are others who certainly knows more than I) but as far as I know, CATIA and SIEMENS are able to translate PMI into STEP AP 214. If I remember right it´s a "Out Of Box" capacity of SIEMENS while CATIA requires a certain license for that. I´m not 100% sure but I beleive that both systems provide semantic representation as well as graphical presentation. The latter is the GD&T symbols humans can see on the screen while the former is what a software application, e.g. a CAM-system can interpret and do something from. However, few CAM system has any capability for making process planning decisions based on PMI data in product model. For sure, both Siemens and CATIA can use PMI data internally to make decisions about appropriate processes and process sequence in hole making... but when it comes to more complex matters such as determine appropriate setup order there are no systems available on the market today. Being able to to do something with PMI-data in product models seems to bee an emerging functionality. I know for instance that Cimatron has announced that GibbsCAM 2016 can import PMI data from SIEMENS, CATIA and STEP (https://youtu.be/6NZ9Lb8We4M). I have not examined the scope of that functionality. But as I have understood it, it is only PMI presentation,

Best regards   

Most modern CAD/CAM packages support STEP AP203 and STEP AP214.

What you need to take in mind is that there are several editions of AP203 and AP214. Many CAD/CAM systems tend to use the first edition as the lowest common denominator to make exchange as easy as possible but with a possible non-optimal (i.e. with loss of some data) data exchange as a consequence..

STEP AP203 edition 2 supports colours, dimensional tolerances and GD&T.

STEP AP214 (I think 2011 edition) supports about the same things as AP203e2.

You have to specify the exact STEP format in the CAD/CAM software.

In PTC Creo 3 you can specify the desired STEP format in the settings file as can be seen in the following screenshot.

Thank you Mr. Magnus and Mr. John for your answers.  The video is so interesting, maybe GibbsCAM can do the work. i've never hear about PTC Creo 3, i'll try to download it to see if it can resolve my problem.

Best regards

Oussamma, it´s a plessure if I can be of any help for you. Just be aware that GibbsCAM doesn´t seem to have any ability to utilize the PMI data for decision making. i.e. you cannot use for CAM automation. As I see it, it is more an adaption to the emerging trend to provide 3D PMI data with the product model instead of providing a 3D geometry model together with the product PMI on a traditional 2D drawing. Maybe this video from 2008 is good for demonstrating some capabilities with model-driven manufacturing?- https://youtu.be/5UQhEubsT_Q