ODA: Enabling STEP Interoperability for the Global Automotive Supply Chain
Major automotive manufacturers often have supply chains of 10,000 or more companies, each needing to collaborate around precise 3D design data. From electronics and precision engineering to batteries and beyond, today’s automotive manufacturing is a symphony of advanced disciplines, requiring seamless collaboration across borders and continents. To address this challenge, automakers are increasingly turning to the ISO 10303 (STEP) standard, a globally recognized data exchange format that ensures long-term data security and cost-effective interoperability.
One key piece of technology required by supply chains to fully adopt the STEP standard is a professional-grade STEP visualization solution. For this technology to be truly effective in the highly interconnected global automotive supply chain, it must meet several critical requirements:
- Readily deployable across thousands of supplier companies and hundreds of thousands of end users worldwide.
- Cost effective to ensure affordability and scalability throughout the supply chain, regardless of company size.
- Actively supported, with regular updates, bug fixes, and feature enhancements to keep pace with evolving industry needs.
- High quality, delivering robust performance, accuracy, and reliability essential for real-world manufacturing workflows.
Open STEP Viewer
ODA’s Open STEP Viewer is purpose-built to meet these exacting requirements, ensuring that every participant in the automotive supply chain can collaborate effectively around STEP data. Open STEP Viewer is:
- Readily deployable: Available as a standalone Windows, Mac, or Linux desktop application, it can be rolled out quickly and efficiently across organizations of any size.
- Cost effective: Provided free of charge for any use, ODA offers Open STEP Viewer as a service to the industry—removing licensing barriers and financial restrictions for the entire supply chain.
- Actively supported: Updated monthly with new features and bug fixes, and backed by ODA’s professional development team, ensuring reliable performance and ongoing evolution.
- High quality: Built on ODA’s mature STEP and Visualize SDKs, Open STEP Viewer delivers exceptional visualization performance and accuracy—meeting the demands of real-world manufacturing workflows.
The Right Business Model
ODA’s business model is built around a non-profit, member-driven alliance, focused on delivering technology that serves the needs of the entire industry, not maximizing shareholder profits. ODA is committed to the long-term success of open, reliable data interoperability—an investment horizon measured not in years, but in decades. As a trusted partner of major industry players including Dassault Systèmes, Autodesk, Siemens, and many others, ODA has a proven track record of supporting the most demanding industrial workflows. This combination of neutrality, experience, and deep industry integration makes ODA the right partner to help the automotive sector realize the full potential of STEP.
Prepared for the Future
ODA’s technology roadmap ensures that supply chains are fully prepared for the future. In addition to the desktop Open STEP Viewer, ODA offers customizable web-based STEP solutions as part of its core membership package—enabling secure, browser-based access to STEP data across distributed teams. All ODA technologies are also available for mobile platforms, making it easy to tailor the Open STEP Viewer for mobile deployment without major expense. As a proud member of PDES, Inc., we’re committed to ongoing innovation: we’re continuously updating Open STEP Viewer to support new STEP versions and actively working with PDES on the development of new STEP features. This means your investment in ODA technology today is a future-proof foundation for the needs of the automotive industry tomorrow.
Success Through Transparent Collaboration
ODA is a mid-sized organization, sustained by a network of over 1,200 member companies worldwide. While our team brings decades of technical expertise, the full customization and ongoing maintenance of Open STEP Viewer to meet the specific needs of the automotive industry requires active collaboration and support from major automotive manufacturers. Our licensing model is built on a tiered, fixed annual fee schedule, with unlimited usage and no royalties. We also offer full source code access for business continuity and security.
I invite major automotive manufacturers to contact me directly to discuss how ODA can meet your interoperability needs today and into the future. With ODA’s transparent business model and cutting-edge interoperability technologies, we’re ready to partner with you to build the future of STEP collaboration in the automotive industry.