Introduction

ISO 10303 is an International Standard for the computer-interpretable representation of product information and for the exchange of product data. The objective is to provide a neutral mechanism capable of describing products throughout their life cycle. This mechanism is suitable not only for neutral file exchange, but also as a basis for implementing and sharing product databases, and as a basis for archiving.

This part of ISO 10303 specifies an application module for the representation of various breakdowns of systems. A system breakdown is a partitioning of a system into a set of related elements to support engineering, analysis and other activities that may be performed in relation to the system. These breakdowns are explicit, parent-child views that comprise the system elements.

The system breakdown view is complementary to the assembly structure and bill of materials views that are the primary focus for manufacturing (realization) of a system (see Part definition relationship). System breakdowns may be of designs or realized individual systems. For any system, more than one breakdown may exist to support various different engineering activities.

EXAMPLE    A heating system might comprise a heat generation system and a heat distribution system.

A System_breakdown is also a Breakdown and a Product and, thus, has identification and may have versions (System_breakdown_version).

Each version of a System_breakdown ( System_breakdown_version ) is related to the product that is the subject of the system breakdown through Breakdown_of .

The constituent components of a system breakdown are represented by System_element objects.

A System_element may appear in one or more breakdowns and is a Breakdown and a Product with identification, versions ( System_element_version ) and views ( System_element_definition ) of those versions.

A System_element_usage identifies the parent-child relationship between a pair of System_element objects in the context of the relevant breakdown. The complete system breakdown hierarchy comprises a tree of System_element_usage objects.

Clause 1 defines the scope of the application module and summarizes the functionality and data covered. Clause 3 lists the words defined in this part of ISO 10303 and gives pointers to words defined elsewhere. The information requirements of the application are specified in Clause 4 using terminology appropriate to the application. A graphical representation of the information requirements, referred to as the application reference model, is given in Annex C. Resource constructs are interpreted to meet the information requirements. This interpretation produces the module interpreted model (MIM). This interpretation, given in 5.1, shows the correspondence between the information requirements and the MIM. The short listing of the MIM specifies the interface to the resources and is given in 5.2. A graphical representation of the short listing of the MIM is given in Annex D.

In this International Standard, the same English language words may be used to refer to an object in the real world or concept, and as the name of an EXPRESS data type that represents this object or concept.

The following typographical convention is used to distinguish between these. If a word or phrase occurs in the same typeface as narrative text, the referent is the object or concept. If the word or phrase occurs in a bold typeface or as a hyperlink, the referent is the EXPRESS data type.

The name of an EXPRESS data type may be used to refer to the data type itself, or to an instance of the data type. The distinction between these uses is normally clear from the context. If there is a likelihood of ambiguity, either the phrase "entity data type" or "instance(s) of" is included in the text.

Double quotation marks " " denote quoted text. Single quotation marks ' ' denote particular text string values.

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