ISO 10303, commonly known as STEP is the international standard for the representation and exchange of product model data using computer systems. The scope includes many application areas and it is intended to cover the complete life cycle of a product. The standard has been developed as a multi-part standard over the past decade and this development is continuing. The ‘first release’ of STEP consists of 12 parts which are being published as full International Standard (IS) documents at the end of 1994 after successfully completing their international review and ballot processes as Committee Draft (CD) ad Draft International Standard (DIS) documents.

This report is intended to provide an introduction to those parts of STEP which are of particular relevance to the Generic Engineering analysis Model (GEM),  project. In particular this includes those parts concerned with the representation of the shape of a product and those dealing with finite element analysis.