STEP Tools, Inc. Ships ST-Developer Version 9

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Troy, New York-September 12, 2001 - STEP Tools, Inc., the forerunner in developing STEP-integration software for the global marketplace, announced today it is shipping ST-Developer Version 9, the latest offering of STEP programming tools keeps customers current with the latest international standards for product data.. Application Developers will find enhancements, extensions, and latebreaking tools to read, manipulate, validate, and share STEP data while updating their current system or initiating a new STEP implementation program. This powerful version slashes costs and programming efforts associated with building, operating and maintaining world class STEP applications, translators and databases. With ST-Developer's out-of-the-box toolkits, programmers will find over 60% of the STEP implementation process is automated with intelligent programming functionality.

"Digital product information is the essential input for the factory of the future. ST-Developer v9 defines the tools that will move manufacturing from paper into the digital world," states Dr. Martin Hardwick, president and CEO of STEP Tools. "The first decade of the 21st Century will be the turning point when manufacturing replaces drawings with electronic product specifications. These specifications will contain all the information required to create products, including geometry, manufacturing features, tooling, tolerances and the process sequence. During the last fifteen years, the International Standards community has produced the groundwork for this revolution. The first machine tools to be driven by STEP-NC data will be available next year. e-Manufacturing will result in at least a 50% improvement in machining time, a 35% reduction in manufacturing set-up time and a 75% reduction in the number of drawings required on the shop floor."

STEP Tools has developed ST-Developer for more than ten years to bring customers worldwide the latest advances in ISO-STEP technology. The high-level, high-function toolkit defined by ST-Developer makes it easy for application developers to work with the digital product information defined by the STEP standards.

Express-to-HTML Converter Delivers HTML Pages; Support for optional ST-XML product
ST-Developer v9 revs up its e-capable features with the introduction of the new EXPRESS-to-HTML converter.
This tool can be used to generate a frames-based set of HTML pages, and makes it very easy to browse and navigate an information model. The EXPRESS-to-HTML converter preserves comments and spacing in the EXPRESS information model and creates a cross reference report for each entity in the schema.

ST-XML, on optional add-on product for ST-Developer v9, is used to create Internet-ready STEP applications. This valuable software gives the user direct access to XML, and EXPRESS-X technology. The ST-XML extension uses EXPRESS-X view and query language defined by STEP ISO standards and the XML bindings to convert STEP data files into STEP-XML data and/or XML business object data.

Up to 60% Automation for New STEP Implementations
STEP programming automation reaches new heights with ST-Developer v9. The products EXPRESS-to-C++ compiler can now implement inverse attributes on-the-fly. When the new '-inverse' option is used, the compiler generates a method that computes and returns the value for each inverse attribute in the information model. This labor saving enhancement will boost productivity levels during the coding process.

Another new asset is the troubleshooting option "rosepaths", located in the command line rose file utility, displays the run-time configuration of the ST-Developer environment. This capability can be used to diagnose where the system is looking to find schemas and other data files. The rosepath option is particularly useful on Windows systems where the search path is specified in a combination of the environment and the registry.

Part 21 File Browser Gives Closer Look at STEP Data
ST-Developer v9 supports internationalization for the STEP (also known as Part 21) file format. For the programmer new to STEP terminology, Part 21 is the STEP exchange file format, or the physical text file containing STEP data. The STEP File Browser has been extended to provide EXPRESS type information for the entities inside STEP files. The browser also displays the name of the attributes in the STEP file, and shows XML data formatted as a tree of nodes that can be collapsed or expanded as necessary.

Updated ROSE and SDAI Programming Libraries
ST-Developer v9 presents a variety of enhancements within its key programming libraries. The ROSE library now offers functionality that decreases application memory usage and cleans up memory at the end of an application to effectively unload a DLL if needed. The library's Part 21 Filer supports the newly released Second Edition of the Part 21 specification, which enables the reading and writing of 16-bit Unicode characters in strings. The Second Edition of Part 21 also allows multiple data sections, where each section can have a separate schema.

The SDAI library includes new extensions including a low-level interface providing seamless interaction between routines written against the SDAI interface and those written to the ROSE C++ API. Other new features allow applications
to manipulate models with multiple schemas. ST-Developer v9 also supports several new compiler configurations within the SDAI library.

Support for a Wide Variety of Platforms and Operating Systems
ST-Developer v9 adds support for HP-UX version 11, and the Sun Forte C++ compiler versions 5 and 6. Platform support includes HP PA-Risc, IBM PowerPC, Intel x86, Sun Sparc and Silicon Graphics. The program has discontinued support for DEC Unix on the Alpha platform. The product line supports the following operating systems: HP-UX v11, Windows 95/98/NT4.x, Linux 2.2, AIX 4.x, IRIX v6, and Solaris v7.

About STEP Tools, Inc.
STEP Tools, Inc. is a leading international supplier of professional STEP software toolsets (based on ISO standards) for application software developers, design firms and manufacturing companies in diverse industries. The STEP Tools product line is used by the world's foremost firms to leverage STEP technology to facilitate the sharing of engineering product information. Over one million end users utilize product data applications built with ST-Developer, the company's flagship product. The company offers ten software solutions in several languages that provide four key benefits: 1) the flexibility of EXPRESS information modeling language, 2) integration with existing tools and database systems, 3) cross-platform portability, and 4) ease-of-use for streamlined development. For late-breaking information, contact STEP Tools, Inc. by calling (518) 687-2848, email: info@steptools.com or visit STEP Tools Web Site: www.steptools.com.

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