TFD Group/Systems Exchange

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Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM) Development Service

The employees at TFD Group have more than a decade of experience in the design and development of ETM / IETM viewers and conversion and production of technical data into electronic formatted information. ETMs / IETMs are generally based on common Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) or eXtensible Markup Language (XML) models that reflect industry standard Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and their associated markup tag sets.

Technical Data Conversion (TDC)

Paper technical documentation is rapidly migrating to electronic data for use in ETM / IETM. TFD Group employs many low-cost, automated solutions to convert paper technical data to ETM / IETM ready electronic text and graphics. Existing documentation can be converted from either paper or electronic data in “flat” SGML / XML files which can be used to build an ETM / IETM data base of information. In general, our conversion process uses the following four step approach:

1. Document Analysis - Defines document structure and format.

2. Document Conversion - For paper documents, scanning is required. Text is processed with Optical Character Reader (OCR) software and saved as Rich Text Format (RTF) files. Source electronic text is parsed to RTF. Graphics and illustrated line art are converted to Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) format for possible insertion of intelligent hotspots.

3. SGML / XML Tagging - RTF files are SGML or XML tagged using automated COTS software. Element attributes and character entities are used which retain as much of the original document appearance as possible. Hyperlinks are authored between paragraphs, tables, and figures.

4. Quality Control - The final RTF file is checked for completeness of content, including text, tables, and graphics. TFD Group's diagnostic processes are used to ensure that the final product accurately reflects the content and structure of the original document.

IETM Production

The TFD Group team’s first ETM / IETM was produced for the U.S. Marine Corps in 1994 and consisted of over 30,000 equivalent pages of electronic data. Customer requirements included interactive parts identification and ordering, maintenance logging and tracking, and other features not yet introduced to the industry.

Today TFD Group is capable of producing SGML driven ETMs / IETMs for all of the popular commercial viewers available in the marketplace. ETM / IETM products are in compliance with S1000D specifications and its use of the XML suite of tools. S1000D is a modified version of the European AECMA 1000D specification which utilizes XSL style sheets (currently converted to HTML) for rendering displays in Internet Explorer. WebCGM 2.0 is being readied for transitioning CGM graphics to the web. It will contain a Document Object Model (DOM), an XML companion file (display interface), and an extensible DTD.

A typical ETM / IETM production process consists of the following:

Existing (legacy) text is analyzed and converted to SGML or XML tagged files, as specified by the customer Legacy text may be provided in any electronic format, or on paper
Existing graphics are analyzed for conversion according to customer need (vector or raster)
If input text is electronic, the data is processed to render SGML or XML tagged files in accordance with customer specified DTDs
Hypertext links are applied using software toolsets supplied by the identified ETM / IETM vendor or commercially acquired off-the-shelf COTS or vendor supplied display viewers are used to render information to a formatted IETM presentation