An Initial Application of AP-233 William Scott Stephen C Cook David Harris System Engineering and Evaluation Centre; University of South Australia Mawson Lakes Campus South Australia, 5095 Emails: william.scott@unisa.edu.au david.harris@unsia.edu.au John Smith BAE SYSTEMS PO Box 1068, Salisbury, South Australia 5108 Email: john.smith3@baesystems.com Julian Johnson BAE SYSTEMS Military Aircraft Division Warton Aerodrome, W376C Preston, UK, PR4, 1AX Email: julian.johnson@baesystems.com Abstract. The System Engineering Design Methodologies (SEDM) project is concerned with potential avenues to exploit the AP-233 system engineering data exchange standard. The project is a joint venture between the System Engineering and Evaluation Centre of the University of South Australia and BAE SYSTEMS Australia. The work described in this paper covers the design and implementation of an import interface from the AP-233 data model to DOORS. The project showed that AP-233 is an effective medium for tool independent transfer of systems engineering information. AP-233 OVERVIEW STEP (Standard for the Exchange of Product model data, ISO 10303, 1992) provides a collection of tools and models to facilitate the transfer of data between engineering tools. This is achieved through an open, generic format that reduces the number of specific interfaces for each tool to two: one for import and another for export. Hence to achieve full interoperability between N tools, only 2N interfaces would be required as opposed to N(N-1). Neutral formats are also useful for archival purposes because they enable expeditious access to old project information created in legacy tools. AP-233 was initiated by the System Engineering Data Representation and Exchange Standardisation (SEDRES) program (European Commission co-funded project 20496). The subsequent SEDRES-2 project continued the development of AP-233 to a Working Draft. While still in the validation stages, there is great international interest in AP-233, both its properties and its potential. SEDM was linked to the SEDRES-2 project through regular liaison meetings with BAE SYSTEMS, UK. AP-233 is a data model that provides semantics for systems engineering data in a process- and tool- independent format. The basic philosophies of the AP- 233 model are (Johnson et al, 2000): • To focus on the semantic-level rather than document-level information; • To embrace a significant subset of the entire systems engineering domain; • To adopt a STEP style of modelling; • To avoid being design-tool specific; • To avoid prescribing a specific systems engineering process, but to be cognisant of standards such as EIA-632 (1999); • To support design ‘re-use’, (having part of a design that is defined once but appears in multiple contexts that is analogous to re-use of a software subroutines or objects). The AP-233 data model is written in EXPRESS: the specification language of the STEP standards. The main systems engineering views supported by the model are: • System architecture • Requirements • Functional architecture 1 1085