Best of Both Worlds - A Mapping from EXPRESS-G to UML

Abstract

On the one hand, in the world of Product Data Technology (PDT), the ISO standard STEP (STandard for the Exchange of Product model data) gains more and more importance. STEP includes the information model specification language EXPRESS and its graphical notation EXPRESS-G. On the other hand, in the Software Engineering world in general, mainly other modelling languages are in use - particularly the Unified Modeling Language (UML), recently adopted to become a standard by the Object Management Group, will probably achieve broad acceptance. Despite a strong interconnection of PDT with the Software Engineering area, there is a lack of bridging elements concerning the modelling language level. This paper introduces a mapping between EXPRESS-G and UML in order to define a linking bridge and bring the best of both worlds together. Hereby the feasibility of a mapping is shown with representative examples; several problematic cases are discussed as well as possible solutions presented. Keyword..