scope:

The CDIF family of standards is primarily designed to be used as a description of a mechanism for transferring information between modelling tools. It facilitates a successful transfer when the authors of the importing and exporting tools have nothing in common except an agreement to conform to CDIF. The language that is defined for the transfer format also has applicability as a general language for Import/Export from repositories. The CDIF semantic metamodel defined for modelling tools also has applicability as the basis of standard definitions for use in repositories.

The standards, which form the complete family of CDIF Standards, are documented in ISO/IEC 15474-1:2002, Information technology - CDIF framework - Part 1: Overview. These standards cover the overall framework, the transfer format and the CDIF semantic metamodel.