LAYMOD: a layered and modular platform for CAx product data integration based on the modular architecture of the standard for exchange of product data

Nowadays, companies strive to survive in a competitive global environment. Reduction of product development cycle plays a major role in market penetration and cost reduction. To speed up product development/modifications, it is suggested to adopt a collaborative product development approach. Collaborative design and manufacture requires an integrated platform to support related CAx product data models. To integrate CAx product data, a number of solutions are proposed. The most successful solution is adopting the STandard for Exchange of Product Data (STEP). In the course of the STEP standard structure and procedure development, two approaches can be recognised: classical and modular. The classical STEP standard has some shortcomings that slow down its implementation in collaborative data exchange. It is believed that the modular architecture of the STEP standard could improve these shortcomings. In this paper, the STEP modular architecture is adopted and a platform named LAYMOD to fulfil the requirements of CAx product data integration and collaboration is proposed. The platform is a layered platform to enable global collaboration and data integration among different CAx software packages. The architecture and procedures of LAYMOD platform are discussed thoroughly in a case study. The results of adopting the STEP modular architecture in the platform show that the LAYMOD fulfils CAx collaboration and product data integration, overcomes the classical STEP standard shortcomings, reduces the high cost and lengthy time of application protocols' (APs) implementation and eliminates duplication and repeated documentation of the same data entries in different APs.