vehicle development. EAST-ADL is used as a reference model in other research projects, e.g. CESAR and TIMMO-2-USE Modeling Tools and File Format EAST-ADL tool support is still limited, although a UML profile is available and domain specific tools such as MentorGraphics VSA, MetaCase MetaEdit+ and Systemite SystemWeaver have been tailored for EAST-ADL in the context of research projects and with customers. Papyrus UML, extended within the ATESST project as a concept demonstrator has EAST-ADL support, and MagicDraw, can also provide EAST-ADL palettes, diagrams, etc. In the case of UML, developers also need to have knowledge of UML (classes, stereotypes, arrow types, ..) for modeling with EAST-ADL. Many automotive engineers, in particular mechanical engineers, hardware developers, process experts) do not have this knowledge and prefer other approaches. EATOP is an upcoming initiative to make an Eclipse-based implementation of the EAST-ADL meta-model. An XML-based exchange format, EAXML, allows tools to exchange EAST-ADL models. The EAXML schema is autogenerated from the EAST-ADL metamodel according to the same principles as the AUTOSAR ARXML schema. Currently, the exchange format is supported by the EAST-ADL prototype of Mentor Graphics VSA, MetaEdit+ and SystemWeaver. For UML tooling, it is possible to exchange models using XMI, subject to the XMI compatibility between tools. Similar approaches Unified Modeling Language (UML) Systems Modeling Language (SysML) Architecture analysis and design language (AADL) AUTOSAR SystemDesk References External links www.east-adl.info EAST-ADL Association www.maenad.eu MAENAD project, current (2012) main contributing project to EAST-ADL. www.atesst.org Home of ATESST and ATESST2, former main EAST-ADL projects. Data modeling languages Software architecture Systems architecture Architecture description language