STEP File Examples

AP 210 data is exchanged using STEP Part 21 files (ISO 10303-21) — text-based files with a well-defined structure. This page introduces common AP 210 data patterns found in real STEP files.

STEP Part 21 Structure

Every AP 210 STEP file follows this structure:

ISO-10303-21;
HEADER;
  FILE_DESCRIPTION(...);
  FILE_NAME(...);
  FILE_SCHEMA(('AP210_ELECTRONIC_ASSEMBLY_INTERCONNECT_AND_PACKAGING_DESIGN'));
ENDSEC;

DATA;
  /* Entities here */
ENDSEC;

END-ISO-10303-21;

The DATA section contains AP 210 entity instances, each identified by a numeric reference (e.g., #1, #42).

Common Entity Patterns

Product Definition

Every AP 210 file starts with product and product definition entities:

#1 = PRODUCT('RC0805JR-07100KL', 'Resistor 100K', $, (#2));
#2 = PRODUCT_RELATED_PRODUCT_CATEGORY('component', $, (#1));
#3 = PRODUCT_DEFINITION_FORMATION('1', $, #1);
#4 = PRODUCT_DEFINITION('design', 'resistor', #3, #5);

Component Placement

Components are placed on a substrate using location and orientation entities. A transformation matrix encodes position and rotation:

#100 = NEXT_ASSEMBLY_USAGE_OCCURRENCE('R1', 'R1', $, #substrate_def, #resistor_def, $);
#101 = COMPONENT_DEFINITION($, $, #100, #102);
#102 = (LENGTH_MEASURE(0.0), LENGTH_MEASURE(5.0), LENGTH_MEASURE(3.0));

Connectivity

Nets and interconnections link component terminals:

#200 = NET('NET_1', $);
#201 = INTERCONNECT_USAGE_OCCURRENCE('J1-1_to_R1-1', $, $, #200, #terminal_1, #terminal_2);

Full Examples

The Test Case Gallery contains 35 complete STEP files demonstrating every aspect of the AP 210 information model:

1_ResistanceModule — simplest case: single resistor with parameters
Atx — ATX motherboard with physical requirements and envelope constraints
SurfaceMountFlasherLRU — complete surface-mount design with connectivity
Orientation — transformation matrices for component orientation