A complete CAD/CAM/CNC solution for STEP-compliant manufacturing

STEP-NC or ISO 14649 is the next generation of data models between CAD/CAM and CNC systems. After a decade of investigation, the STEP-NC technology is still under developed. The lack of a complete CAD/CAM/CNC prototype system with full bidirectional data flow hinders the improvement of STEP-NC. This paper proposes a complete CAD/CAM/CNC solution for STEP-compliant manufacturing, so as to explore the functionalities and emphases of STEP-NC technologies. Frameworks of individual CAD/CAM and CNC systems are illustrated in detail. Architectures of STEP-compliant CAD/CAM and CNC systems are studied and several criteria are summarized. Finally, this paper proposes a complete prototype STEP-compliant solution, which consists of a secondary developed STEP-compliant CAD/CAM system on the CATIA platform and an open structured STEP-compliant CNC system.