Product Data Exchange Specifications (PDES):

By the year 1984, several international efforts had produced sufficient results to be compared, and international community was preparing to compose in hopes of creating a common solution to CAD data exchange. The drivers for common international standard included following:

• Global commerce and data exchange;
• Increasingly complex products;
• Multi-use software, e.g., design or engineering systems that apply to multiple industries and applications;
• Reliance on suppliers at all phases of product development;
• Need for life-cycle support.

Various felt that IGES could not sufficiently respond to these pressures.