Custom Feature: Cable/Wire Routing

jahid_kalifullah

Hello Neil,  

 Im not able to see the wire defaults in the Variable studio , which is shown in the wiring harness routing demo video.
please suggest.

jahid_kalifullah

Hello Neil,

      I m not able to place the wire connector in the model. please check the below image.

NeilCooke

@jahid_kalifullah please create a support ticket and share the model

jahid_kalifullah

@NeilCooke I want to control the wire entry length , but the "By Manipulator" option is not showing. please suggest.

NeilCooke

@jahid_kalifullah the names changed from the original feature and the videos at the top of the post are out of date. Sorry. You are almost there. Edit wire 1 and the manipulator for the cable will appear. 

jahid_kalifullah

@NeilCooke Thanks.

jahid_kalifullah

@NeilCooke I want to create a bundle (consider it as wire coverings) on the wires . current set up shows like , first need to create a cable for the wires and then bundle on it. 
But i want to create bundle directly on the wires. Please suggest.

NeilCooke

@jahid_kalifullah this should be done with a cable, assuming all the wires are in the same feature. A bundle is only used if you are splicing, so wires defined in different features can use the bundle option, but then you wouldn't be able to get them to follow each other like you can in a cable.

NeilCooke

Changelog for release 1.181

⭐ Fixed issue with strip to first/last clip
⭐ Broken out end conditions into separate options for more control

To update an existing route, the options for first/second strip may look wrong, but the result is correct. If you edit the options, you may have to edit both of them to get it back to how it was. This was required for updating.

eric_pesty

Thanks @NeilCooke
The new jacket end conditions are great!

eric_pesty

This one is not a huge deal but we do find ourselves often specifying "strip and retain" on our drawings and usually show a piece of insulation offset at the end, something like this:


It would be neat to have an option to generate these automatically, although probably only useful in the "straight" config of the part...

eric_pesty

This is just curiosity at this point but do you have a plan for managing socket/pins for connectors (i.e adding them to the eventual "BOM"/table to be shown on a drawing) and are you able to share what you had in mind?

Maybe a 3rd option (next to Connector and Terminal) to define a socket and a section in the Connector to link them together? When inserting a connector you would then be prompted to select a pin/socket to populate the used connector positions.

There are some interesting consideration with some connectors having a wide range of sockets to pick from, including different versions based on the wire size, it would be great to be able to define acceptable wire range for each one to get some built-in error checking (and to have the inserted connector populate the correct ones based on wire size). 
Now that I think of it, it might be useful in the current wire connector feature to define compatible wire sizes for extra protection from design errors...

Wout_Van_Gerven

I'm using the wiring feature a lot, and there are a few things that I'm missing or that are not working as I would expect:

1. The ability to create a bundle of wires without forming a cable.
2. Adding twisted pairs of wires and accurately reflecting the added length to the cable.(is not yet a feature maybe nice to add in the future)
   
3. Ensuring that if one wire follows a path of another, it continues to do so even after the original wire is edited, as long as the "follow first wire" option is enabled. Now if this is on and you add a point or edit the wire only the first one changes.
   
4. The ability to see the strip lengths of the wires in the table.
   
5. The option to add part numbers to the connectors, and have them appear in the table along with the plugs and pins used. Otherwise I have to add that in the feature script but when its updated I have to add this to the new script every time.

These issues would  improve the functionality and usability of the wiring feature also when its needed to produce the wire harness from the tables.

NeilCooke

Changelog for release 1.181.1

⭐ Fixed an issue with wire length calculations when "Follow first wire" is selected

Big thanks to @Wout_Van_Gerven for finding this.

Design_Bro

Maybe I've missed it, but, this tutorial doesn't cover actually putting it into the assembly. You're left with an empty assembly, and a part studio which you can't mate. 

So, what now?

Design_Bro

NeilCooke said:

jahid_kalifullah said:

Is it possible to do flatten the routed 3D harness model?  if yes, please share the steps to do it.

Not yet

My ignorance is showing, but, if we can't flatten it and produce a schematic, how does one send this info to a supplier and get a harness? 

Ex: I have a harness going around a roof, with several branches to lights. In the tutorial, I don't see any way a harness producer would know where to join the highlighted cable into the harness, how much it should protrude on either side, etc. 

If I'm missing something, please let me know. If those feature(s) are not included, are they planned?

NeilCooke

Jonathan_Hockaday said:

NeilCooke said:

jahid_kalifullah said:

Is it possible to do flatten the routed 3D harness model?  if yes, please share the steps to do it.

Not yet

My ignorance is showing, but, if we can't flatten it and produce a schematic, how does one send this info to a supplier and get a harness? 

Ex: I have a harness going around a roof, with several branches to lights. In the tutorial, I don't see any way a harness producer would know where to join the highlighted cable into the harness, how much it should protrude on either side, etc. 

If I'm missing something, please let me know. If those feature(s) are not included, are they planned?

The "not yet" was the giveaway. It's in the works.

NeilCooke

Jonathan_Hockaday said:

Maybe I've missed it, but, this tutorial doesn't cover actually putting it into the assembly. You're left with an empty assembly, and a part studio which you can't mate. 

So, what now?

In the Part Studio you'll see a Part called Wire in-Context Reference (or something like that). Assemble that and the harness into the assembly (actually better doing it in a subassembly), group them, and assemble the "reference" part to the assembly origin.

david_johnston217

@NeilCooke . How does this accommodate flying leads from a device such as a motor.  Does the motor get connector features?  Is is possible for one end of a wire routing to be designated as fixed/permanent.  Thanks 

perrin_thompson

.

NeilCooke

david_johnston217 said:

@NeilCooke . How does this accommodate flying leads from a device such as a motor.  Does the motor get connector features?  Is is possible for one end of a wire routing to be designated as fixed/permanent.  Thanks 

In the example in the doc, the fans are connected in this way, though it's not possible to have them as part of a library component since they have to be routed.

NeilCooke

perrin_thompson said:

I am trying to set up a BOM with all the wire data such as length and diameter, however when I put the composite part of my wiring into the assembly all it shows is a cable with all the wires listed description and there is no way to add length data. am I missing something on how to add the BOM information correctly?

Currently, no, since it is not an assembly of parts, it's just a single composite. The wire data is only available in the table in the Part Studio. You can "copy table" from the 3-dot menu in the wire length table, paste it into a spreadsheet, then copy from there and paste it into a drawing. It's not associative, but it's one way to get the data onto a drawing. This process will be automated in a future update.

perrin_thompson

@Neal Thank you for getting back to me!

Matt_NC

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/24724/wire-clip-curves-not-included-in-the-composite-part-and-therefore-unelectable

Is anyone else having this issue at the moment? @NeilCooke @chris_lambert

Matt_NC

NeilCooke said:

perrin_thompson said:

I am trying to set up a BOM with all the wire data such as length and diameter, however when I put the composite part of my wiring into the assembly all it shows is a cable with all the wires listed description and there is no way to add length data. am I missing something on how to add the BOM information correctly?

Currently, no, since it is not an assembly of parts, it's just a single composite. The wire data is only available in the table in the Part Studio. You can "copy table" from the 3-dot menu in the wire length table, paste it into a spreadsheet, then copy from there and paste it into a drawing. It's not associative, but it's one way to get the data onto a drawing. This process will be automated in a future update.

Could it also be possible to include the lengths of the cable insulation / bundle covering, and/or make the option to include the individual wires, cable insulation, and bundle coverings as separate parts rather than them always being a single composite?

As an example, I'm currently working on an assembly where we are modifying the length of 2 wires supplied attached to a solenoid, and adding a third wire to form a bundle (so red wire from the solenoid goes to a connector at Point A, black wire goes to a connector at point B, and there is a third wire on a second pin of the connector at Point A going to a second pin at the connector on Point B, with a protective sheath bundling the black and red wires from the solenoid to near Point A and a second sheath covering the black and third wire from Point A to Point B )

jacob_lafond

@NeilCooke

I'm having an issue with Pin ID recognition.

I've attached a screenshot of the CSV which I imported to Onshape. The other screenshot is of the imported pin IDs. Notice that the pin 1D is now only listed as 1.

The same issue occurs with 1F or any other number in front of F or D.

The problem is resolved if the letters are rearranged.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

NeilCooke

@jacob_lafond good catch. Turns out this is a bug in the Onshape CSV import code so there is nothing I can do to fix it until it's fixed in by the devs which (believe it or not) is not so simple. Can you use another number format for now? If not, I could possibly have it parse a string (so you would have to put "1D" or "1F" in the csv).

Nick_Crane

@NeilCooke

Great FS, really good job!

I see some discussion about adding an update that would flatten a harnesses and create a schematic from the modeled wires. That would be helpful and great to add.

I have been constructing the from-to lists by hand(I haven't tried the option of not using a CSV file yet) and was wondering if there is any ECAD software out there that you have found to be helpful in constructing and exporting a CSV in the appropriate format needed? Something that could build a from-to list from a graphic schematic? I have used KiCAD and imagine there could be a way to export a CSV file with custom headers, as long as everything was assigned carefully. Has anyone had any luck with something like this?

Thanks.