Is there a wiring featurescript that does ribbon cables?

nick_papageorge073

Title say it all. I have these two wiring FS, and one does do cable bundles, but not a flat ribbon. Its not super important, just seeing if one is out there already. Thanks.

EvanReese

not that I'm aware of. You could use my Profile Sweeper with a rectangle profile, and optionally do a full-round fillet after like so. 

nick_papageorge073

@Evan_Reese Thank you! That is very helpful, exactly what I was looking for so I don't have to manually draw a sweep profile each time.

Beggars can't be choosers, but some feedback for your scripts:

1) Would it be possible to show the length in the "freeform spline", like the "wiring" FS does? My application is fixed length RF cables, so I move the control points around until the length is exactly right. To get the length, I use the "wiring" FS (which shows the length in the feature name), and turn on final in the freeform FS while moving the control points.

2) Would it be possible on the "Profile Sweeper" to have independent rotation on each end, and have it twist automatically to accommodate somewhere in the middle? See my screenshot what's happening on the 2 ribbon cables. I tried move face (rotate) after the feature was created, but that did not work.

eric_pesty

@nick_papageorge073
Another option is to use a loft with path approach.
You can use the "transform pattern" feature to only draw your profile once and replicate to all you connectors. A bit more manual but that way you have better control...
You can even add a profile somewhere along the way if you need to have a specific orientation somewhere (using the "multi mate connector" is good way to create a reference for the intermediate profile). The key is to mess around with the "number of station" setting to something that doesn't vary too much ins section along the way.

Example: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/5be9e29ad9938c76ceeb4e8f/w/ed9244455e5ec8742877c713/e/38e753f02b505e593403f84b

Also the length of freeform splines is reported in a table:

nick_papageorge073

Thank you @eric_pesty. That worked well. The extra MC in the middle keeps it looking more realistic for the twist. Thanks for pointing out the table view of the lengths.

nick_papageorge073

One more related question: It seems when making any in-context edit, an implicit MC is not possible, but an explicit one is. When you are using the freeform spline, are you guys picking the "face" where the wire attaches, and then hand typing 0,0,0 for the offset? (basically putting it at the same location an implicit MC would be). Or are you making an explicit MC on every connection point before even making the spline? I did it both ways on my practice and small real assembly. Not sure which I like best. I'll probably have 50-75 cables to route on a higher level assy (all round cables, thankfully).

eric_pesty

It's unfortunate you can't pick implicit mate connectors from context geometry... I find the quickest option tends to be to do an "offset surface" with a zero distance to convert what you need into "implicit mate connector" friendly faces.
Sometimes using sketches can make sense too (especially if you have coplanar connectors)

nick_papageorge073

@eric_pesty, thanks, I tried that and it was quick. I can get all the faces in one offset feature.

EvanReese

Thanks Nick, I don't plan to update Profile Sweeper to support multiple rotations or anything for now, because it's meant to me mostly a convenience feature, so it's gotta stay simple. To make that change would add a lot of UI that doesn't get used much, and require a lot of retooling on the code itself to use a loft and path etc, which will also break existing instances using a sweep. I like Eric's solution for that though.

NeilCooke

I'm working on a solution, but it won't be ready for a few weeks.