New Article about CoreTechnologie from Aerospace & Defense Technology- October 2019 - By Mr. David Seliman

1. 1 www.aerodefensetech.com Aerospace & Defense Technology, October 2019
T
he existence of countless pro-
prietary file formats and the
exchange of 3D CAD data has
been a significant problem
since the beginning of 3D CAD model-
ing. CAD applications and methods
using digital data are constantly
changing, which predicates the need for
a solution to share validated and accu-
rately translated data. Thus the birth
of STEP242.
Companies who are adopting Model-
based processes and tools within their
organizations are using ISO 10303
STEP Application Protocols AP242
and AP239 for both exchanging data
as well as maintaining data for
archival and retrieval. Long Term
Data Archival and Retrieval (LOTAR)
(http://www.lotar-international.org) is
an International project sponsored by
multiple consortiums for the standard-
ization of the archival and retrieval of
digital product and technical data.
This project is ISO compliant and
works across multi-CAD environments
enabling stake holders to share 3D
data within a Model-Based Environ-
ment (MBE) or a digital enterprise. To
ensure the preservation of design in-
tent, validation properties that include
geometric shape representation, as-
sembly features, saved views, user-de-
fined attributes, color, visibility, and
Product & Manufacturing Information
kentoh/Shutterstock.com
(PMI) 3D data need to be verified and
validated for compliance. The culmina-
tion of these standards is allowing
companies around the globe to manage
interoperability with fewer challenges.
Government regulators are enforcing
the need to retain digital documents in-
definitely for legal, administrative and
historical purposes. Dealing with govern-
ment guidelines, the advent of MBE and
the preservation of digital data necessi-
tates the need for an approved process for
managing this type of data. Many OEMs
and suppliers are grappling with the no-
tion of how to preserve electronic docu-
ments and information for 70+ years.
Some of the issues they face include esti-
mating the lifespan of storage materials,
the potential obsolescence of file formats,
upward and backward compatibility of ap-
plications and operating systems, and
whether existing methods of reading data
will be viable in the future.
AP242 is the replacement of stan-
dards AP203 and AP214. AP242ed1
was released in 2014, and edition 2 is
well on its way to being released by the
end of 2019. Although neutral formats
are not the holy grail, the externalities
to this format is the benefit of the con-
sumption of downstream applications in
the Computer Aided Engineering (CAE),
Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM)
and Coordinate Measuring Systems
(CM) domains. The provocative imple-
mentation of AP242 has been ad-
dressed in many studies at NIST1.
CoreTechnologie (CT) can releve the
burden within companies and is often
approached to make some sense of the
countless requirements and standards.
They are finding a proactive approach to
this fast-changing industry as well as
providing the necessary automation re-
quired within PLM applications.
The Airbus Story
One of the key driving forces behind
the creation of LOTAR is the now famous
case study of the Airbus 380 - when en-
gineers in Germany and Spain were using
a version of CATIA V4, and French and
British offices had upgraded to CATIA
V5. This meant the German teams could
not add their design changes for electri-
cal wiring back into the common three-
dimensional digital mockup in France. Be-
cause of issues like these, engineering
system managers are grabbing the tech-
nology as a solution from its indigenous
prototypes STEP 214, and 203.
A “STEP” Forward for
Product Lifecycle Management

2. Aerospace & Defense Technology, October 2019 www.aerodefensetech.com 2
Software, Simulation
The mission of LOTAR is to develop a
global standard based on archival and re-
trieval mechanisms for digital product and
technical information. LOTAR will achieve
this through the ongoing harmonization
and standardization efforts of Aerospace
and Defense affiliations and their com-
mon objectives. I have seen the adoption
of other industries, as Daimler is using the
AP242 to support its MBE collaboration -
manufacturing information (PMI) inte-
grated with models and embedding it
within the JTOpen file format and 3D PDF.
Once the standards are written in a
statement of work, they are then passed
on to PDES, the US governing body,
(https://pdesinc.org/) and the European
governing body, ProStep, to define spe-
cific projects. The consortium members,
PDES and the implementor forum
(CAxIF) would then develop the require-
ments. As part of the goals for archival
and retrieval, the resulting projects will
seek to enable data exchange and inter-
operability mechanisms to ensure long
term use of the digital product and tech-
nical information.[2]
Interactions with the Aerospace &
Defense PLM Action Group aims at
strengthening the communication of
business requirements between users,
implementors, standardization bodies,
and regulatory authorities such as EASA
and FAA. The Engineering Analysis and
Simulation team has reached an agree-
ment with NAFEMS to mutually benefit
from expertise related to CAE and long-
term archiving with AP209 Ed.2. With
the near-term availability of AP242 Ed.2
as Draft International Standard, the
Electric Harness group will support the
launch of an implementor forum in this
domain, as part of the CAx-IF, based on
pilot projects conducted to support the
development of the data model. As
stated by Simon Frechette at NIST,
“Each company’s modeling practice will
draw that distinction differently. For
example, export control limitations
could be represented inside the MBD
dataset, or as a BOM attribute, or both,
depending on the company’s design
practices.”
Industry Requirements
Many OEM’s have set guidelines on
how to address a very common practice
that takes place in today’s world of 3D
CAD collaboration.
Each arrow in the above diagram
could potentially be a conversion of one
3D CAD format to another. It is quite
easy to see how information has the po-
tential to be lost at any point during the
process. This is partially due to different
modeling kernels, which can compro-
mise data integrity. LOTAR and other
organizations have put forth recom-
mendations on how to make this
process less complex and ensure that a
standards based approach is taken dur-
ing the conversion, storage, and valida-
tion of the format.
Methodology
CoreTechnologie has followed the
LOTAR recommendation and has ap-
plied it to its suite of software – 3D_Evo-
lution & 3D_Analyzer to support all
three major points: Conversion, Stor-
age, and Validation.
STEP File Validation Options
Screen shot of a file validation page

3. www.aerodefensetech.com Aerospace & Defense Technology, October 2019Free Info at http://info.hotims.com/72998-xxx
Software, Simulation
Validation
CT is the first interoperability com-
pany to develop the method of check-
ing the validation properties of STEP
AP242 files based on the recommended
practices of LOTAR and its implementor
forum PDES. File Validation is an im-
portant process for both sharing and
storing data for future reference.
CT originally developed this functional-
ity for Airbus, as Jean-Yves Delaunay is
known to be a subject matter expert at Air-
bus and has assisted in defining the re-
quirements at LOTAR and has written nu-
merous papers over the past ten years.
Using STEP AP242 satisfies the strict regu-
lating requirements facing aerospace and
defense companies. Validation reports
were also developed using the direct feed-
back and recommendations of Airbus
whose main concern was to satisfy the reg-
ulatory requirements of its government.
There are three reporting options avail-
able: HTML, CSV, & txt. The HTML format
provides a graphical representation of the
many validation checks available.
Archive/Storage
Governmental bodies around the
globe are increasingly enforcing regula-
tions for aerospace companies to retain
digital documents indefinitely for legal,
administrative or historical purposes for
as long as the airplane(s) remains flying.
ISO 10303 AP242 is at the basis of how
the LOTAR organization recommends
the format of the digital data be stored
for the foreseeable future. A standards-
based approach will ensure that future
absorption of the data will be at the
same level of openness for all. LOTAR is
also aiding in the area of reducing the
amount of storage space needed to
house all of this information in server
vaults by providing recommendations
on how to compress the STEP file for-
mat using an algorithm that will be
open for all implantations to use, as
well as provide the new file extension to
be clearly understood that the STEP file
is compressed and will need to be un-
compressed for use in the future system.
CoreTechnologie has implemented the
ability to batch process the conversion of
native file formats with its 3D_Evolution
product in the STEP AP242 format, BO
model XML, ISO 10303-21 and com-
pressed files recommended by LOTAR.
This would allow IT departments to store
and archive the digital data for years to
come in a standards-based method as
well as save money when it comes to the
amount of disk space that would be re-
quired, as in some cases file size reduction
can be as much as 35%.
Conclusion
CoreTechnologie continues to look at
its road map to understand standards in
the context of ever-growing global mar-
ket requirements. CT has taken the nec-
essary steps to align our suite of products
to meet three of the biggest challenges
when it comes to meeting regulations set
forth by governing bodies: conversion,
validation, and archiving.
Interesting mandates are challenging
software companies these days. Robert
B. Reich stated it best in an issue of the
Harvard Business Review, “If you feel as
if government and OEM relationships
are breathing down your neck, get used
to it. For the foreseeable future, govern-
ments are going to take an especially
keen interest in how you’re managing
your business. Executives should look
for tighter scrutiny than we have seen
for decades and now, [get] accustomed
to ducking behind corporate and gov-
ernment relations professionals. We will
need to develop a new mindset and skill
set that will allow them to partner with
the government rather than fend it off.
This article was written by David A. Sel-
liman, Vice President, CT CoreTechnologie
Inc. (Southfield, MI). For more informa-
tion, visit http://info.hotims.com/72998-
501.
References
1. https://www.nist.gov/publications/
portrait-iso-step-tolerancing-standard-
enabler-smart-manufacturing-systems
2. http://www.lotar-international.org/
development-space/lotar-workgroups/
3d-cad-with-pmi.html
3. http://www.lotar-international.org/
why-lotar/mission-objectives-scope.html
4. http://www.cax-if.org/documents/
rec_prac_gvp_v31.pdf
5. http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2010/
janqtr/pdf/14cfr21.137.pdf
6. http://www.boeingsuppliers.com/supplier/
DPD_Task_Guide.pdf
7. https://www.supplier.cessna.com/
quality/requirements_for_engineering_
projects.pdf