Overview

IDA-STEP is an extensible software system for handling many different aspects of industrial product model data. It is very tightly linked with STEP, the "STandard for the exchange of Product model data", ISO 10303.
The underlying infrastructure of IDA-STEP consists of:

Java programming language
Eclipse for all GUI and installation aspects (see www.eclipse.org)
JSDAI for handling product data (see www.jsdai.net)

The functionality of IDA-STEP is wrapped up in so called "features". By licensing and installing more features the functionality of IDA-STEP can be increased step by step. You can check for the currently installed features by starting About IDA-STEP from the Help menu and then clicking on Feature Details. The following kind of features are available:

IDA-STEP Framework for handling the main aspects of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and all aspects on registration, installation and update.
Viewer Basic for being able to view the contents of a STEP File.
Viewer Pro xxx for extended viewing capabilities in a particular area, e.g. for 3D or PCB/PCA.
Editor xxx for editing capabilities in some area xxx.
Import xxx for being able to import files of format/type xxx.
Export xxx for being able to export files in some other format.

This help documentation will cover only those features that are currently installed on your PC.

Free annual licenses are available for the features IDA-STEP Framework and Viewer Basic. They don't need any special license-id to run on your computer. For all other features a license-id is needed which consists of 5 by 5 characters separated by a "-". They look like this:
XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
By default licensed features are only valid for a limited time; e.g. one year. The actual termination day of each feature is listed in the Registration, Install and Update dialog, available via the Help menu.

The installation of IDA-STEP is quite easy, but requires a good Internet connection:

you first download the IDA-STEP Framework installer from www.ida-step.net and install it on your computer.
next you start IDA-STEP and then you have to decide whether to use the free viewer or to enter a license-id.
depending on what you have chosen all needed software is then loaded into your PC and immediately afterwards you can start working
whenever a new update becomes available, or you have upgraded your license for additional features or you want to switch from the free license to a commercial one simply run the Register, Install and Update dialog again.

Figure 1. IDA-STEP Viewer window

The internal data model used by IDA-STEP is called XIM which stands for Extended Integrated Model. It is a vendor specific combination and arrangement of the modular STEP data models called Application Reference Model (ARM) and Modular Integrated Model (MIM) and IDA-STEP specific extension. Data according the XIM model is stored in binary files with the extension ".xim". XIM files can be loaded significantly faster than standard STEP Files with the extension ".stp" and can also contain additional information such as rendered 3D models for fast viewing.

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