New Feature in progress: Ribbon Cable

joshtargo

Probably already exists in some form, but I like to write. Makes ribbon cable, various types of bends, custom dia, colors, wire count.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/a3de202140f671f983428b31/w/bc4418830e99d5dabc59cd32/e/f1e3404c704907207bffc0c3

still to do:

• add a few more types of bends
• add twist
• change dia to GA.
• add ability to spread wires at start and end to match connectors.
• maybe add the common connectors i use.
• use sheet metal terminology like outer, inner, keep for bends
• track connectors, from, to, and lengths

What are the best FS for making ribbon cables that are available currently?

joshtargo

added twist and yaw

nick_papageorge_dayjob

Wow, nice! I needed that 2 years ago.

ry_gb

This is nice. The bends and twists are something I definitely needed.

Derek_Van_Allen_BD

Any plans for support to fan out the ends of these ribbons to different end locations? Like if I have a 6 wire ribbon cable with 4 channels going to signal pins that are all aligned, one little straggler on the opposite side of the board because of space constraints, and a ground line that's tied elsewhere.

joshtargo

@Derek_Van_Allen_BD yes, I was going to adapt my Loft Individual FS for this, at both ends. I'm doing a full rewrite currently and it's going to be better all around

NeilCooke

This is in my long term plan to add to routing - the issue is that the ribbon should fold at corners which adds a level of complexity (although, I already know how I intend to do it, but time is my enemy).

Derek_Van_Allen_BD

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/131106#Comment_131106

It's simple, we just need a simultaneous modeling engine for all of the things that aren't sheet metal and dump the ribbons onto that. Can't be too hard, right?

joshtargo

reworked, new version could still be buggy. the big thing will be to make it behave like sheet metal where you can base the runs on existing geometry. Ribbon FS link

martin_kopplow

The fold thing is important. It brings with it the necessity to twist the cable, once it reaches the destination, in case the pin arrangement there must be met. The transitions checked in green would be important, while the one marked with the red cross woud possibly not be needed at all, IMO, and should not even be promoted, fot that is not what ribbon cables do.

joshtargo

@martin_kopplow I kept it in just in case someone wanted to use it for visualization. I am working on more updates, especially for the start and end of the cable.

Derek_Van_Allen_BD

@joshtargo for what it's worth, my interest in your feature is more for parallel runs of tubing than for true ribbon cable so the folding requirements being violated is actually preferred for aesthetics.

joshtargo

progress:

joshtargo

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/a3de202140f671f983428b31/w/bc4418830e99d5dabc59cd32/e/2520fc7ba19f500cba0e58ae

martin_kopplow

That does already look pretty cool! :0)

EvanReese

I made some time to play around with this and I really like where it's headed. Two thoughts to throw into the ring here:

1. It might be more helpful if it were designed to follow an existing path. The user could select a chain of curves, and override what's happening with each curve segment. For example, it would be easier to define a route using routing curve in polylines mode with a corner radius. Then I could pick that chain, and assign bends and twists to each segment.
2. Are you planning to allow some kind of flattening for drawings later? It could be a separate feature that reads attributes of this one.

wille_j

This is cool, for ribbon cables these folds and straight sections makes sense, but a suggested add-on is that the general 3D case is actually solvable too.

I have an Enterprise script WIP that I'm sadly not able to share, but the math is simple enough: The bending of a flat cable can be approximated with plain bending in the curve's principle curvature direction. Such that the cable will twist as the curvature direction changes along a generic curve. Input would be max twist rate and min bend rad. This is discretized in the math solve for this and I have a feeling the new sweep with twist tools might simplify the modelling of this.

joshtargo

@EvanReese i it's not a bad idea, but I'll have to play to see if i can get it to work. Is there a way to pre-populate the array definition with edit logic? Or maybe the user created the array elements by selecting segments of the path curve?

joshtargo

@wille_j this could help for arbitrary angles, but my original code used transforming coordinate systems to control the polyline and bspline corners, and worked ok, but was more complicated than my new hardcode version. I always need to find a balance of making it work good enough for our needs, without spending too much time coding (which i am slow at).

wille_j

Totally fair, I let Claude do a big chunk of the coding nowadays. Training it to become excellent at FeatureScript has been a fun and incredibility rewarding. I don't do much of the database coding/management myself anymore, only the bits that I think is fun and let Claude wrap it up into our systems.

EvanReese

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/131199#Comment_131199

You can certainly make it populate the array with Editing Logic. The implementation I imagine though is something like:

1. User chooses a chain of tangent connected curves.
2. Each curve gets a point manipulator on it which you can click to "Add and override" or something like that.
3. When you click it, a new override array element is added and you can choose a twist value

joshtargo

@EvanReese i'll have to think of a good way to handle the fact that the guide curves will likely be planar, while bends such as Fold will cause the sections before and after to be non-coplanar. maybe the guide curve is used for lengths, directions, and radii, but the ribbon will slowly deviate as it folds and flips.

EvanReese

I was imagining this being done with a 3D Routing Curve

joshtargo

@EvanReese first trials of a rough follow system. you can pick lines for any length or radius inputs, then the (0 default positive) length field becomes a length adjust field with negative or positive values accepted (as seen in segment 1 tail)

joshtargo

mega changes, full re-do based on routing curve.
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/33d493a57124fe81b00fe22d/w/c6f78eba7f32d51bb01f4fb9/e/e209addca144bca94c46dbee

EvanReese

Is this a new document? I don't seem to have access

joshtargo

@EvanReese sorry, yes, it was new, i forgot. great videos btw.

billy2

This is really cool and something I've wanted for a long time. It's in my tool bar.

I love the double fold, 2 thumbs up for that.

joshtargo

@billy2 thanks. i've got another one in the works which is more freeform, with manipulator control and arbitrary angles, but none of the pre-made corner types. not sure which one is "better". maybe they just need to be separate scripts.

billy2

@joshtargo are you an instructor? Are you teaching kids this stuff? I hope so. This whole thing is really well done not just the feature script "Ribbon" part but the whole project.

nick_papageorge_dayjob

IDK if this is the right place, but could you do a twisted pair? We had a lot of cable drawings to create, and "faked" the twist so it shows up decent in a 2D drawing. Thanks.