Origin of STEP:

Considerable development has been made in vector data exchange on the recent past. Primarily, some CAD/CAM vendors offered direct translator software. There are various disadvantages to this approach, which include following:

• An exclusive pair of translators is required for all of version of every combination of CAD/CAM systems available in the marketplace.
• The user is based on software vendors to maintain this almost infinite combination of version applications.
• The maintenance of all of these combinations of transfer capabilities is expensive, and that cost is finally passed on to the user.
• As a general rule, these translators passed low-quality solid geometry that was not sufficient for driving NC operations without the CAD/CAM user having to aid the transfer procedure by doing very many geometry clean-up. Also, no attempt was made to transfer parametric model dependencies/constraints. Consequently of these problems, most major weapons system developers and various large-scale commercial vendors such as Boeing, Ford, and GM in addition to many CAD/CAM vendors have abandoned or are phasing out direct translators. Instead of, big business is helping to grow and is by using an emerging neutral file - an international standard approach called as ISO 10303 (also known as STEP).

The STEP community is in the procedure of defining and standardizing a number of domain-specific (mechanical or electrical) Application Protocols (AP) that shall define neutral files readable by any CAD/CAM system. These neutral files shall carry all the information required for the development and life-cycle maintenance of a new product. The neutral file structure will provide the much-needed standardization of DoD's technical data, therefore enabling quick and efficient modification, storage, and retrieval of the technical data.