The Emerging ISO10303 Modular Architecture: In Search of an Agile Platform for Adoption by SMEs

ISO10303 STEP (STandard for the Exchange of Product model data) released a suite of application protocols covering the most important product life-cycle activities. The maturity in the development and usage of these standard models was conducted to the redesign of the classical architecture of STEP application protocols to a more agile architecture in order to better fit the emergent technologies and facilitate the understanding, development, reuse, and implementation of normalized reference product data models. This paper introduces the new modular architecture of ISO10303, comparing it with the classic architecture of STEP. Then, it describes the structure of the new modular AP236, concluding with a proposal for a graphical framework for the design and development of normalized modules and new modular application protocols.