In standardization, a profile is a subset internal to a

specification A specification often refers to a set of documented requirements to be satisfied by a material, design, product, or service. A specification is often a type of technical standard. There are different types of technical or engineering specificati ...

. Aspects of a complex technical specification may necessarily have more than one interpretation, and there are probably many optional features. These aspects constitute a profile of the standard. Two implementations engineered from the same description may not interoperate due to having a different profile of the standard. Vendors can even ignore features that they view as unimportant, yet prevail in the long run. The use of profiles in these ways can force one interpretation, or create de facto standards from official standards. Engineers can design or procure by using a profile to ensure interoperability. For example, the International Standard Profile, ISP, is used by the

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

in their ISO ISP series of standards; in the context of OSI networking, Britain uses the UK-GOSIP profile and the US uses US-

GOSIP The Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile (GOSIP) was a specification that profiled open networking products for procurement by governments in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Timeline * 1988 - GOSIP: Government Open Systems Interconnectio ...

; there are also various mobile profiles adopted by the W3C for web standards. In particular, implementations of standards on mobile devices often have significant limitations compared to their traditional desktop implementations, even if the standard which governs both permits such limitations. In

structural engineering Structural engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering in which structural engineers are trained to design the 'bones and muscles' that create the form and shape of man-made structures. Structural engineers also must understand and cal ...

a profile means a hot rolled structural steel shape like an -beam. In

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...

, a profile consists of a plotted line which indicates grades and distances (and typically depths of cut and/or elevations of fill) for excavation and grading work. Constructors of

road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

ways,

railways Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

(and similar works) normally chart the profile along the centerline. A profile can also indicate the vertical slope(s) (changes in elevation) in a

pipeline Pipeline may refer to: Electronics, computers and computing * Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on ** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...

or similar structure. Civil engineers always depict profile as a side (

cross section Cross section may refer to: * Cross section (geometry) ** Cross-sectional views in architecture & engineering 3D *Cross section (geology) * Cross section (electronics) * Radar cross section, measure of detectability * Cross section (physics) **Abs ...

) view (as opposed to an overhead (

plan A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with details of timing and resources, used to achieve an objective to do something. It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a goal. ...

) view).

Material fabrication

In fabricating, a profile consists of the more-or-less complex outline of a shape to be cut in a sheet of material such as laminated plastic, aluminium alloy or steel

plate Plate may refer to: Cooking * Plate (dishware), a broad, mainly flat vessel commonly used to serve food * Plates, tableware, dishes or dishware used for setting a table, serving food and dining * Plate, the content of such a plate (for example: ...

. In modern practice, a drawing office determines the shape and dimensions required to fit the sheet into a larger work and feeds directions to a computer controlling a profile cutter. This then cuts the shape from a standard-sized sheet. The cutting head may use a rotating cutter like that of a spindle router or (in the case of steel plate) a torch which burns oxy-acetylene or other oxy-gas.

Material fabrication

See also