ISO 10303-243-2021 PDF

Full title and description

Industrial automation systems and integration — Product data representation and exchange — Part 243: Application protocol: For modelling and simulation information in a collaborative systems engineering context (MoSSEC). This part of ISO 10303 (STEP) defines the information structures and resources needed to represent modelling and simulation contextual metadata to support collaborative systems engineering workflows, traceability and interoperability across tools and organizations.

Abstract

This specification (ISO 10303-243:2021) prescribes the integrated resources and application protocol to encode modelling and simulation information and its context (MoSSEC). It covers representation of requirements and verification, study results and audit trails, model definitions and key values (including distributions for uncertainty), organizational and personnel information, properties and documents, packages of work, breakdowns and hierarchical relationships, interfaces (connections and ports), architecture inclusion, and metadata for justifications, assumptions, approvals, security and trust.

General information

• Status: Published
• Publication date: December 2021
• Publisher: International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
• ICS / categories: 25.040.40
• Edition / version: Edition 1 (2021)
• Number of pages: 733

Scope

ISO 10303-243 defines an application protocol for the capture and exchange of modelling and simulation contextual metadata in collaborative systems engineering. Its scope includes representing collaborative requirements and verification, structuring and recording study results (with audit trails and evolution), defining models and key parameter values, encoding organizational/person information, linking properties and supporting documents, describing packages of work and their lifecycle, mapping breakdowns and parent-child relationships across structures, describing interfaces and ports, selecting which elements belong to an architecture, representing uncertainty through distributions, and recording justifications, assumptions, approvals and security-related metadata to enable interoperable decision-making and enforcement of policies across organizations.

Key topics and requirements

• Model and model-definition representation: formal encoding of model artifacts, key values and parameters used in analyses.
• Study results and audit-trail: structured representation of study inputs, outputs, activities, and evolutionary history for reproducibility and traceability.
• Requirements and verification linkage: mapping requirements to verification activities and evidences.
• Breakdowns and hierarchical structures: representing product/system decompositions and relationships across different breakdowns.
• Interface and connectivity descriptions: ports, connections and interface definitions for multi-domain integration.
• Metadata for uncertainty: support for key values as distributions to express uncertainty in simulation inputs and results.
• Organizational and personnel metadata: representation of organizations, roles, approvals and responsibilities.
• Document and property linkage: association of documents, properties and justification/assumption metadata with models and results.
• Security, trust and policy-related information: metadata to support enforcement of organizational security and HR policies.
• Interoperability with other modelling standards and PLM systems: enabling exchange of contextual metadata across tools and supplier/OEM boundaries.

Typical use and users

Primary users are systems engineering teams, modelling & simulation engineers, PLM and CAE tool vendors, integrators, digital thread architects, and organizations seeking traceable, interoperable exchange of model context across suppliers and partners (notably aerospace, automotive, defence and other complex-product industries). The standard is also relevant to long-term archival (LOTAR) efforts, model reuse programs, certification evidence management, and organisations implementing multi-tool model-based engineering workflows.

Related standards

ISO 10303-243 is part of the ISO 10303 (STEP) family. Closely related application protocols and resources include ISO 10303 parts addressing product model data and managed model-based engineering (for example AP 242) as well as broader STEP resources and modules used to build APs. MoSSEC complements technical simulation standards and tool formats (for example Modelica, FMI and SSP in certain workflows) by providing contextual metadata and interoperability scaffolding. ISO/TC 184/SC 4 is the technical committee responsible for development.

Keywords

MoSSEC, ISO 10303-243, STEP, modelling and simulation metadata, systems engineering, model contextual data, interoperability, audit trail, requirements traceability, PLM, CAE, LOTAR.

FAQ

Q: What is this standard?

A: ISO 10303-243:2021 (MoSSEC) is an application protocol within the ISO 10303 (STEP) family that defines data structures and resources to represent modelling and simulation contextual metadata for collaborative systems engineering and interoperability.

Q: What does it cover?

A: It covers representation of requirements and verification, study inputs/outputs and audit trails, model definitions and key values (including uncertainty distributions), organization/person metadata, document/property associations, work packages, breakdowns and relationships, interfaces/ports, architecture inclusion, justifications/assumptions/approvals, and security/trust metadata to support interoperable decision-making.

Q: Who typically uses it?

A: Systems engineers, simulation and CAE practitioners, PLM/MBSE tool vendors, data architects, integrators, and organizations in aerospace, automotive, defence and other sectors that require interoperable model-context exchange and traceability across suppliers and platforms.

Q: Is it current or superseded?

A: ISO 10303-243 was published in December 2021 as Edition 1 (ISO 10303-243:2021). As of the publication information on ISO’s catalogue (checked February 2026), it remains the published international standard; users should consult the ISO catalogue or their national standards body for any amendments or later editions published after this date.

Q: Is it part of a series?

A: Yes. It is Part 243 of the ISO 10303 family (commonly known as STEP), a large series of parts covering product data representation, implementation methods and multiple industry application protocols.

Q: What are the key keywords?

A: MoSSEC, STEP, modelling and simulation metadata, systems engineering, interoperability, requirements traceability, audit trail, model definitions, PLM.