There are several commercial STEP translators available on the market today that can produce digital product data that is compliant with AP203 of STEP. While this discussion is not meant to be a tutorial on STEP, it is significant to note that AP203 was developed (with much input from Team SCRA) primarily to assist product designers to more quickly and efficiently exchange geometry and configuration management related data between heterogeneous CAD systems. So even though AP203 is proving to be a success story for the design world, it was never intended to provide for the exchange of all the other types of information that are needed to manufacture products.

That’s where AP224 comes in. Officially the Mechanical Product Definition for Process Planning Using Machining Features, this AP is ‘owned’ by Team SCRA (as its lead developer and international advocate). It provides not only the geometry of the part, but also the part features, dimensions and tolerances, material requirements, and notational information. In other words, everything a manufacturer needs to know in order to efficiently produce the right part the first time. As far as we know, we have the only capability available today that allows for the creation of AP224 STEP-compliant data files within an operational production environment.

The figure below depicts Team SCRA’s approach to creating AP224-compliant STEP data files that provide a manufacturer all of the information that is needed to rapidly and accurately produce discrete machined parts. We call our system STEPTrans. As shown, the basic function that this system performs is the conversion of various forms of existing technical data—such as paper drawings, aperture cards, and native CAD files—into a digital format that is fully compliant with AP224 of STEP.

Note that, in addition to the AP224 STEP data, STEPTrans also provides an AP203-formatted file and an IGES file as outputs. This variety of outputs enables a manufacturing organization to have access to whatever type of data is best suited for its existing resources and information environment.

STEPTrans also includes a very robust Order Manager. This feature allows the system’s operator to enter, estimate, track, and manage each product data conversion job. It also provides the capability to manage the configuration of each technical data package to ensure that the STEP data that is being created reflects the latest engineering version or revision.

STEPTrans has been designed and developed to greatly alleviate the many problems commonly associated with incomplete, inaccurate, and ill-maintained technical data. The ultimate objective of the system is to enable its user to rapidly, accurately, and completely capture the design of both existing and new discrete mechanical products. We know that if that objective can be achieved, the individuals responsible for subsequently manufacturing those products should have absolutely no question or confusion concerning what it is they are supposed to produce. And that saves time and reduces cost.

An experienced STEPTrans operator, starting with an engineering drawing or a native CAD file, can typically complete the design capture process for a reasonably complex mechanical part in no more than 3 hours. And, of course, the real benefit of the system is that, once a part’s design has been captured and translated out into STEP-formatted data, that STEP file can be archived and used over and over again by the various functional elements within the organization: Engineering, Manufacturing, Product Service, Technical Documentation, even Marketing & Sales.

How quickly an organization’s investment in STEPTrans is returned will be dependent on how extensively the system is used, and the extent to which the products that are captured on the system are re-manufactured and/or re-engineered in the future. Meaning the greater the number of part designs that are captured into STEP format, and the more those resulting STEP files are subsequently used, the more quickly the initial investment in the system is going to be returned. SCRA can assist you in determining your specific return, based on your business environment and workload.