MIL-STD-40051
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MIL-STD-40051 on Ironmark
Structured authoring/editing for MIL-STD-40051 technical manuals — work packages, RPSTL, PMC-driven assembly, XSL-FO-to-PDF pipeline, change bars, and the DTDs the standard expects. Everything a 40051 program needs to author, review, publish, and deliver.
What's supported
| Root elements | genwp, paper.manual, section, and the short-form aliases wp/tm/chapter — DOCTYPE handling per SDM. |
| Work package types | Descriptive, procedural, RPSTL (plwp / IPD), warnings, fault, schedul, PMCS, and the other WP classes 40051 defines. |
| RPSTL / IPD | First-class parts catalog editor. Figures + item sequences, callout numbers, PN / NSN / CAGE / description, qty-per-NHA, effectivity. Scan-TM for undiscovered partRef mentions. NHA tree + part-relationship graph. |
| Publication Module (PMC) | PMC assembly via PM Builder — drag WPs into chapters, reorder, sub-entries follow parent. Update-from-TOC rebuilds structure from a source TOC. |
| Applicability | Usable-on-code (UOC) support alongside applicability filters. Per-asset preview for both. |
| Schema / DTD | DOCTYPE preserved on round-trip. Per-project DTD override for customer-supplied schemas. |
| Publishing | PDF via WeasyPrint (in-box) or XSL-FO (ironmarkpdf in-box; Apache FOP as an optional install). IADS-compatible packaging for downstream viewers. |
Coverage
First-class UI
- WP editor (structured + visual)
- RPSTL / IPD catalog
- PM Builder + Publication Builder
- Applicability wizard (UOC + filters)
- Parts browser + relationship graph
- Change bars against baselines
- IADS export (for interactive delivery)
Structured editor
- Fault WPs
- Procedural WPs (proced-shaped)
- Descriptive WPs (descript-shaped)
- Warning / caution / notes
- Schedul, service bulletins
Deliberately out of scope
- Interactive PDF form authoring beyond standard 40051 shapes
- Non-40051 print pipelines (page-layout tools)
Publishing pipeline
Two backends, both in-box:
- WeasyPrint — HTML+CSS via the SDM's shipped stylesheet. Faster iteration; good for programs that want to tune layout via CSS.
- XSL-FO — the classic 40051 path. In-box option: ironmarkpdf (Go, ships in the bundle, faster startup). Optional external engine: Apache FOP (mature layout coverage — odd-page breaks, complex tables, TOC leader-terminated page numbers) — install with the installer's
--with-fopflag orapt install fop. Customer-configured commercial options: Antenna House or RenderX XEP (both licensed separately from Ironmark, purchased directly from the respective vendor) — the sysadmin registers the binary path once in Admin → Formatters & Tools; each project then picks which engine to hand FO to.
Two-layer model: the sysadmin registers engine binaries once (tenant-wide) in Admin → Formatters & Tools; each project picks which engine to use in Project Settings → PDF Engine. The FO fallback chain is Antenna House → RenderX XEP → Apache FOP → ironmarkpdf — whichever higher-preference engine is registered wins, with the bundled ironmarkpdf renderer as the included fallback.
What ships in a fresh 40051 project
- SDM package — 40051-compliant DTDs, templates, descriptors, and both WeasyPrint CSS + XSL-FO stylesheet
- Empty PM — ready to build via PM Builder
- Empty RPSTL scaffolding — first plwp DM lives under Documents; add figures + items via the IPD editor
- Cover-page metadata slots — TM number, CAGE, contract number, classification — populated from Project Settings