Overview

The second edition of AP238 is formally known as STEP Part 238: Application Protocol for Model-based Integrated Manufacturing, commonly referred to as STEP-NC. The standard was published as ISO 10303-238:2020(E). The title was updated to indicate the interaction between AP242 and AP238 for model-based design and manufacturing.

This was replaced by the third edition in 2022.

Programming Notes

Starting with the second edition, the schema name was changed to emphasize the connection between model-based design and manufacturing. The stplib_schema_ap238e2 enum distinguish between the two editions if needed.

RoseDesign * d;

// second edition "MODEL_BASED_INTEGRATED_MANUFACTURING_SCHEMA"
stplib_put_schema (d, stplib_schema_ap238e2);

switch (stplib_get_schema(d)) {
case stplib_schema_ap238e2:
    // ap238 second edition

case stplib_schema_ap238:
    // ap238 first edition
}

New Entity Definitions

AP238 first edition was published in 2007 and predated AP242e1 (2014) and AP242e2 (2020). The largest change in AP238 second edition is the addition of the nine hundred new definitions originally introduced by AP242 for semantic tolerances and PMI, kinematics, tesselated models, scan data models, additive setup, high-level process plans, and new types of hole features.

AP238 second edition also adds a few other new EXPRESS entities to support ARM concepts that were identified during production testing. These include assigning machining fixtures to a process, more efficient toolpath representation for high-speed machining, additive manufacturing operations, extended CAM descriptions, assigning machine tool models with kinematics to a process, capturing digital twins of actual or simulated machining.

There were also supertype changes to several EXPRESS entities to integrate with the AP242 process plan model, but the appearance of data in Part 21 files remains the same.

additive_type_operation
extended_type_operation
machining_fixture_usage
machining_machine_usage
machining_process_executable (supertype change)
machining_rapid_movement (supertype change)
machining_touch_probing (supertype change)
machining_twin_relationship
machining_usage_relationship
via_arc_point
via_helix_point