Management of Data Including STEP

Data Management is of interest to modern-day engineering so that data can flow freely between the different modules of the overall software packages, typified by CAD modellers, finite element analysis and post-processing. STEP (ST andard for the E xchage of P roduct model data) is an international standard aiming to provide such unified data exchange between all important software modules.

R0005 ,   Aas, J,   Data Exchange In Finite Element Analysis - A Functional Requirement Specification, 1992.

This provides both an introduction to newcomers and a definition of functional requirements for experts, in the subject of data exchange (e.g. STEP standard). For neutral files to be successful, they must contain relevant data as used in practice, so the sort of data that needs to be considered has been tabulated – this includes data for many NAFEMS benchmarks, from commercial codes, and from the real experiences of practising engineers. This is a very detailed report (174 pages) containing lots of relevant information.

R0007,   Leal, D,   STEP FEA Project Meeting, 1992.

This is a report of a week-long STEP FEA project meeting that was held in Oslo in Feb 1992. The meeting was concerned with various issues within STEP relating to FEA data models. Although the report gives a lot of details of these issues, many details will have been superseded due to subsequent progress.

R0061 ,   NAFEMS,   Report on the Vendor Challenge, circa 1998.

This was a challenge of software vendors to analyse a 3D piston, to see how accurately the geometric models could be set up using the STEP standard. The emphasis was on the sharing and usability of the geometric information rather than on the ability of any particular code to perform the analysis, although indications of quality are necessarily of value. The contributed results from a number of participants are discussed.

R0082 ,   Vaughan , C,   Product Data Management and The Engineering Analysis Environment, circa 2001.

This provides a basic introduction to Product Data Management (PDM) and Configuration Management (CM) for people working in engineering analysis, indicating how the integration of all theses areas could bring business benefits. It outlines the benefits of applying a PDM scheme to engineering analysis, together with the benefit of using PDM to integrate the design and analysis activities for efficiency gains.

R0096 ,   Grau, M,  State of the art Review in CAE Data Management, 2007.

This paper describes a scalable solution for the management of CAE data that can be implemented step-wise and integrates existing processes and applications using proven and industry strength concepts and tools.