Standardizing the specification, verification, and exchange of product geometry: Research, status and trends

The task of international standardization of product geometry specification, verification and exchange is shared largely by two ISO committees. One is ISO TC 213, which is charged with the standardization of dimensioning, tolerancing, surface finish and related metrological principles and practices. The origin of this standardization dates back to pre-information age, and much effort in the last 20 years has gone into bringing greater mathematical rigour to this work to make it suitable for the information age. The other committee is ISO TC 184/SC 4, which is charged with the standardization of product data models suitable for exchange among various information systems. This effort, commonly known as STEP, is relatively new and is a product of the information age. This paper describes the current state of the interplay between the efforts of these two ISO committees, research work that was undertaken to meet the goals of their standards and plans to address future challenges.