THE FIRST RELEASE OF STEP (STANDARD FOR THE EXCHANGE OF PRODUCT DATA) IS APPROACHING QUICKLY. IT WILL BE THE NEUTRAL FORMAT BY WHICH PRODUCT DEFINITION DATA WILL BE REPRESENTED WORLDWIDE. FOR MORE THAN 10 YEARS, IGES (INITIAL GRAPHICS EXCHANGE SPECIFICATION) HAS BEEN THE MOST WIDELY USED NEUTRAL FORMAT. WITH THE LARGE INSTALLED BASE OF IGES SOFTWARE THAT CURRENTLY EXISTS, THE SUPPORT OF THIS LEGACY SYSTEM MUST BE ADDRESSED WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF STEP, PDES, INC. HAS ADDRESSED THIS ISSUE WITH THE PDES TOOLKIT SOFTWARE. ONE IMPORTANT COMPONENT OF THIS TOOLKIT IS THE IGES TO STEP TRANSLATOR (ITOS). THE DESIGN, FUNCTIONALITY, USE AND BENEFITS OF ITOS AS A MIGRATION TOOL FROM IGES TO STEP ARE DISCUSSED.