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 retention and archiving.

This part of ISO 10303 specifies an application module for the representation of all system structure specification information consistent with the needs of systems engineering; that is, the description of how a system decomposes into its parts and how the parts assemble to make the whole.

Within the System_structure_arm there are several modules that are used to create collections of things that may be hierarchies or networks (directed graphs) of information useful to the engineer. The superclass of these is the Product_breakdown_arm that can be used for any special purpose. It has three subclasses: the System_breakdown_arm, the Zonal_breakdown_arm, and the Physical_breakdown_arm. It is critical for the reader to note that these names have come from much earlier SC/4 work and not from the systems engineering community. The System_breakdown arm does not capture a breakdown of the system, but rather a special subset of systems for specialized purposes. The Physical_breakdown_arm is not the breakdown for the system into real parts made out of atoms. Rather it is a special collection. The zonal_breakdown_arm is a breakdown into geometric regions of a system. This approach is often used in ship and aircraft development.

Hyperlink to Annex F for AP233 concept model introductory material associated with system structure capabilities enabled within AP233.

This second edition of this part of ISO 10303 incorporates the modifications to the first edition listed in Annex G.2.

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 ISO 10303, the same English language words can 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 can 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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