Evaluation of Shape Representation Methods in STEP for Korean Industry

The international standard STEP stands for standard for exchange of product model data. It represents ISO 10303. In the STEP, common shape representation is supported by various part groups. In this paper, four major part groups are investigated. The first part group is part 40's, the integrated generic resources, which provide the fundamental framework for shape representation. The second part group is part 500's, the AIC (Application Interpreted Constructs), which provide common shape representation for APs (Application Protocol). The third part group is part 50's and 100's, the parametrics, which provide the representation schemes for variational geometric design and history-based parametric design. The fourth part group is the rest of STEP parts which are involved in shape representation such as AP 203. In this paper, these part groups are summarized in terms of common shape representation supports and relationship among these parts are analyzed. Finally, based on the analysis, future works in these fields in Korea are proposed. Keywords-STEP(ISO 10303); shape representation; product model data exchange; neutral format.