2003-09-08

STEP Tools' Free Data Translation Service Achieves Landmark Usage with 20,000 Online Translations

Troy, New York - September 8, 2003 - STEP Tools, Inc. today announced an industry milestone as its online translation service officially reached 20,000 STEP data translations as of September 2, 2003. STEP Tools was among the first innovative companies to introduce a web-based interactive application (www.steptools.com/translate) in January 1995. The free-of-charge STEP translation program has served to raise awareness of ISO STEP (STandard for Exchange of Product model data) in the manufacturing sector. The service supports the following data translations: ACIS-to-STEP, STEP-to-ACIS, Parasolid-to-STEP, STEP-to-Parasolid, AP203 Checker, CEB-XML Writer, and the OSEB-XML Writer.

"The landmark usage of our STEP Translation service is a tribute to the dedication of many people to give the manufacturing community a reliable, international data standard," states Dr. Martin Hardwick, president and CEO of STEP Tools, Inc. "From inception, the goal of STEP was to give an explicit and complete representation of product data throughout its entire life cycle and reduce costly interoperability problems. In 2003, the success rate of STEP Tools' online translation service was 97% in any given month. That is truly a milestone."

STEP Tools' translation service also allows visitors to test drive the translation and visualization solution for STEP data. End users have the capacity to translate and observe virtually any CAD model in any file format. STEP Tools' translation service also includes popular graphic data formats and allows users to directly upload files without using FTP (File Transfer Protocol).

STEP Tools' integrated suite of tools and libraries covers every aspect of STEP implementation and drastically minimizes the effort needed to move applications and databases into compliance with ISO STEP (Standard for Product Data Exchange) and other standards that use EXPRESS information models. STEP Tools also has introduced software solutions to support STEP-NC Implementation programs and flagship users of this important, emerging technology.