Design of a Flexible, Integrated Testing System for STEP and OMG Standards

New software standards supporting integration of manufacturing and engineering systems are emerging at a rapid pace. Two groups, the OMG (the Object Management Group) 1 and the community producing STEP (formally known as ISO 10303: the Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data), dominate in the production of standards for manufacturing and engineering industries. Their standards are based on common methods, which can be exploited in developing tests for systems supporting the standards. This paper describes the methods employed and a system that builds on those methods to support the automatic and rapid development of conformance tests for the emerging standards. Abstract............................................................................................................................................................................1