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PLEASE NOTE: The Publications System provided by the Manufacturing Systems Integration Division (MSID) has moved to: http://www.mel.nist.gov/msidlibrary/publications.html. The pages below are maintained for archival purposes only.

Publication summary

Author(s): K.C. Morris

Publication date: February 2000

Citation: K.C. Morris: "Improving PDM Testability Through Standards Harmonization," Proceedings of the Product Data Technology Europe 2000 Conference, February, 2000.

Key words: STEP, OMG, Product Data Management (PDM), standards harmonization, EXPRESS-X, interface standards

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Abstract:
Product Data Management (PDM) is quickly becoming a mainstay technology supporting product development. Several standards are emerging to support interoperability among PDM systems and between PDM systems and their clients. These standards serve multiple purposes in the overall enterprise software system. PDM standards being promoted by OMG (Object Management Group) and ISO (International Organization for Standardization) exemplify the different purposes. OMG's PDM Enablers standard supports system interoperability using a server-based architecture, while STEP (ISO 10303: the Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data) supports data interchange for more loosely coupled systems such as those in supply chain relationships. The OMG standard describes standard interfaces to be used in accessing a PDM system, while STEP describes the data necessary for the exchange of data between PDM systems. Considerable effort has gone into aligning the PDM standards from OMG and STEP so that they are compatible where overlap exists. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has contributed to this effort through the Testability of Interaction-Driven Manufacturing Systems (TIMS) project. The TIMS project is investigating how the two standards could be tested in concert to ensure compatibility. Essential to this activity is a mapping between the standards. This paper describes the initial mapping used and our approach to documenting the mapping in a programmatic form. In order to map between the standards, a view of the PDM data as described for STEP was created. This view provided the data needed to generate calls to the OMG PDM interface to create an analogous system state. In addition to serving as a source of data for testing implementations of the OMG PDM interface, this activity has uncovered challenges in fully integrating systems using the different style of interfaces.

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