STEP Tools, Inc. is dedicated to improving engineering with smart, open product model data. As a privately-held commercial software developer founded in 1991, STEP Tools has a long history of helping companies use the ISO STEP and STEP-NC international standards to exchange CAD, CAM, and CNC data and simplify worldwide design and manufacturing. The company's product development, sales, and marketing activities are managed at the corporate headquarters in Troy, New York.
STEP Tools products are used by leading software developers, Fortune 500/1000 companies and major universities involved in engineering and manufacturing disciplines. ST-Developer, the company's flagship software development product is used within Siemens PLM Solutions NX, Autodesk Alias, Bentley Microstation, Integraph, Alibre, CADKEY Corporation, Tecnomatix, and other CAD systems to provide STEP, CIS/2, and IFC product data interfaces. The ST-Developer libraries are present in over one million CAD seats, as well as PDM, analysis, visualization, and OEM in-house tools. Manufacturing organizations use STEP Tools' STEP-NC Machine software to create, view, and run STEP-NC machining programs that can be shared between many organizations and reused on many different machines.
The Super Model project will deliver a quantum leap in technology and automation for manufacturing, and replace antiquated programming languages and processes. The end result will be STEP-NC, an Internet-ready, integrated design and manufacturing database used to convey information throughout the company and supply chain. STEP applications on the Web have the capacity to reduce the costs of production planning and manufacturing control for a supply chain by 30% or more.
The Super Model project has garnered international attention from prime manufacturers and trade media in anticipation of the tremendous productivity gains in manufacturing. The Super Model project is a three year program that will extend the STEP standard into manufacturing and numerical control machining. This effort effectively enhances STEP design data with manufacturing information, such as stock features, tool requirements and manufacturing process sequences. STEP Tools has been working on developing and deploying STEP-NC since 1999 and continues to gain momentum.
The company is also working on two other synergistic data integration programs: 1) Harvest from the National Shipbuilding Research Program, and the 2) WSME (Web-based Smart Modeling Environment) project for the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command. Both programs will result in STEP-enabled programs to improve the manufacturing efficiency of shipyards in the United States.
In summary, STEP Tools is focused specifically on developing STEP-enabling software for the worldwide manufacturing industry. The company's mission is simply, "STEP Made Easy". To support this objective, STEP Tools has developed specialized applications, translators, and libraries to aid in the implementation of STEP and the emerging STEP-NC standards. These software toolsets drastically minimize the effort needed to move applications and databases into compliance with current international data standards.
The company has always taken a leadership role in developing STEP ISO standards. Dr. Martin Hardwick, president and CEO, is the team leader of the STEP Manufacturing group. Dr. David Loffredo of STEP Tools was appointed as the deputy lead of STEP Implementation Methods. STEP Tools has also lead two subcommittees, and is the editor of three parts of STEP specifications.
As the STEP data standard continues to gain momentum worldwide, STEP Tools is setting the stage for a major breakthrough in manufacturing. The Super Model project has estimated that STEP-NC will reduce the time required to define a part program by about 35%, reduce the number of drawings that have to be sent from design to manufacturing by about 75% and decrease the time required to machine parts on CNC tools by about 50% for small to mid-sized job lots. STEP-NC will also make CNC systems safer and easier to use.
The company has created a world class Industrial Review Board (IRB) for its Super Model project and works closely with the most progressive companies involved in manufacturing. The 94 member IRB represents all sectors of the industrial marketplace and includes premier companies such as The Boeing Company, IBM Corporation, Lawrence Livermore, Lockheed Martin, General Motors Powertrain, General Dynamics Land Systems and more.
The fully scalable STEP Tools product line enables companies to leverage state-of-the-art STEP and STEP-NC technology to facilitate the managing, sharing, and exchanging of engineering product data inside and outside the manufacturing enterprise. Their software provides an open architecture, which supports modification and enhancement by third-party developers and customers. STEP Tools products also reach the most CAD users in the marketplace via the combined user base of its major CAD/CAM vendor customers.