scope:

This part of ISO 13584 specifies the principles to be used for defining characterization classes of parts and properties of parts which provide for characterizing a part independently of any particular supplier-defined identification.

The rules and guidelines provided in this part of ISO 13584 are mandatory for the standardization committees responsible for creating standardized characterization hierarchies.

The use of these rules by suppliers and users is recommended as a methodology for building their own hierarchies.

The following are within the scope of this part of ISO 13584:

- the rules to group parts into leaf characterization classes of parts and non-leaf characterization classes of parts;

- the rules for the choice of the appropriate properties to be associated with the characterization classes of parts;

- the attributes to be provided by information suppliers to describe the characterization classes and properties of parts;

- the mechanisms for connecting characterization classes of parts to classification systems;

- the mechanisms for connecting characterization classes belonging to different characterization hierarchies;

- the specifications of those entities and attributes in the EXPRESS information model that provide for the exchange of such dictionary data.

- the description of any other object than part that can be characterized by a class belonging and a set of property-value pairs and to which the whole methodology defined in this part of ISO 13584 applies.

EXAMPLE Description by means of a dictionary compliant with this part of ISO 13584 can be used for describing any kind of products, as defined in Clause 3.

NOTE 1 The complete EXPRESS information model for the exchange of dictionary data, known as the common ISO13584/IEC61360 dictionary model, is defined in ISO 13584-25. Several levels of allowed implementations for the common ISO13584/IEC61360 dictionary model, known as conformance classes, are also defined in ISO 13584-25. Conformance class 1 consists of the various schemes documented in this part of ISO 13584 (that duplicate information contained in IEC 61360-2), as well as the ISO13584_IEC61360_dictionary_aggregate_extension_schema documented in ISO 13584-25 (duplicated in IEC 61360-5 ). More advanced conformance classes, identified as conformance classes 2, 3 and 4, are documented in ISO 13584-25.

The following are outside the scope of this part of ISO 13584:

- properties of which values have an aggregate structure;

NOTE 2 An EXPRESS information model for the exchange of properties of which values have an aggregate structure is defined in ISO 13584-25.

- the description of the parts themselves;

- the descriptions of the functional models that can refer to some class of parts;

- the description of tables, program libraries and documents that can refer to some class of parts;

NOTE 3 EXPRESS resource constructs for the exchange of these information elements are defined in ISO 13584-24:2003.

- the description of the systems intended to manage parts libraries.

The structure of the information and the methodology defined in the ISO 13584 standard series enable the following:

- integration in the same data repository of different parts libraries originating from different information suppliers with uniform access mechanism provided by a dictionary;

- referencing another supplier library assumed to be available on the receiving system;

- referencing a standardized characterization hierarchy when such a hierarchy exists;

- definition by an end-user of a local categorization or search hierarchy, and the mapping of these hierarchies onto the supplier libraries available on its system.