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Processing Incoming STEP Files for Corporate Standards Compliance
Robb McCord, Process and Tool Development and Support
Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems
An overview of a custom system for processing incoming STEP AP203 file for compliance to Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems (NGES) file naming and assembly construction standards will be presented. Most of the out-of-the box CAD systems allow special characters in file names and many small suppliers utilize this capability to create extremely long descriptive file names for their CAD model component files. These names are strictly preserved by the Siemens NX4 STEP import post processor necessitating manual renaming of files and other non value activities that inhibit the design and drawing release processes. In addition, a typical engagement with a design supplier involves the import of the same STEP data several times often creating duplicate NX4 data which are flagged and must be resolved, creating additional overhead. Final, other specific rules exist on what types of components should be processed, such as standard NGES library parts already in existence will never be imported from a STEP file. To accomplish the goals of clean STEP imports with compliance to our rules, a new front end interface for NX4 was created to replace the out of the box STEP import menu and this presentation will describe this implementation.
