JT Open - Siemens PLM Software - #2

Increases lifecycle collaboration by enabling product makers to integrate visualization data from dissimilar CAD systems into a virtual product that can be viewed, interrogated, and marked up by widely dispersed participants in the product lifecycle.

Sustains productivity by enabling engineers to work with their CAD system of choice while enabling non-CAD users to review design decisions using other more intuitive applications.

Reduces lifecycle cost by enabling all lifecycle participants to review the product design as early as possible, thereby minimizing lifecycle rework and accelerating the time-to-market schedule.

Reduces development cost by enabling design teams and other lifecycle participants to iteratively work with virtual prototypes instead of costly physical prototypes.

Enables knowledge users to access and work with intuitively understandable visualization data (even if they possess minimal engineering knowledge).

Allows engineers to interrogate the product design as it is being developed.

Allows extended enterprises to work with a smaller file format that is more agile and easier to transmit than most master CAD files.

Reduces the cost of information exchange by endorsing one common visualization format and eliminating the need for multiple translations and data re-entry.

Eliminates the need to manage different visualization file formats.

JT is designed and implemented as a high-performance, compact, persistent storage representation for visualization data. This proven lightweight data format enjoys widespread use in the automotive and aerospace industries, where best-in-class large-scale assembly and interactive modeling systems adopt JT technology as the de facto standard for 3D visualization.

The JT format is a highly flexible, CAD-neutral format that can be created from most major MCAD applications, allowing full representation of relevant model information. JT data can be very lightweight, holding little more than facet data, or it can be richer and hold precise model geometry, product structures, attributes, and product manufacturing information (PMI), including GD&T and annotations.

High-end mechanical CAD applications export data in JT format to provide an efficient representation for viewing and exchanging 3D models. JT supports textures, lighting models, and motion, as well as multiple tessellations for level of detail (LOD) generation.

JT technology is especially popular in enterprise application systems that support today's product lifecycle. As a result, JT has earned its position as the de facto industry standard for 3D visualization, collabo­ration, and data sharing. Its popularity manifests itself across numerous applications, including systems used for: Web viewing 2D/3D view and markup Enterprise quality Digital mockup Digital simulation Factory simulation Virtual reality Multi-CAD integration

The JT Open Toolkit is one of the products in Siemens' PLM Components suite of offerings. Its open design

encourages widespread use, providing the entire PLM industry with a means to read/write JT data at a very low cost. The JT Open Toolkit is the primary mechanism provided to members to facilitate their access to the JT data pipeline. The JT Open Toolkit is a C++ library that enables applications to create and navigate JT data via a comprehensive suite of functionality accessible by toolkit classes. While the toolkit provides all of the necessary technology to access JT data, adopters will add their own application logic to create/manipulate JT data within their applications.

Siemens PLM Software has significant experience in delivering products and services within a level playing field paradigm. Along these lines, Siemens has provided Parasolid® software to independent software vendors for many years. Siemens will draw on its Parasolid credentials, as well as its experience with other open tools, to ensure that all JT Open members receive the same JT Open Toolkit at the same time with the same level of support.

JT Open Toolkit enhancements are targeted for release twice a year. Enhancement releases will be made available on a downloadable basis. The initial release of the JT Open Toolkit will be available for Windows, HP-UX, Sun Solaris, SGI Irix and AIX systems and will be supported on both 32 and 64 bit hardware platforms.