Defining Materials for Wires in Creo Schematics

Hi Phillip...

You can define density information on the Creo side using the SPOOL definition file. There are tons of parameters you can set for spools - but finding them isn't intuitive. Go into your spool definition (edit your spool). When the Electrical Parameters window appears showing your spool, select View->Columns from the top top down-menu. A listing of available parameters will appear in the Model Tree Columns dialog box. You'll probably see DENSITY, MASS UNITS and UNITS in the listing. Add them to the right column (the "Displayed") column. Select OK to exit the Model Tree Columns dialog box. Now you'll see columns for density, mass units, and units in your spool window.

You'll probably see units like "INCH" or "MM" appear in the Units column. Likewise, you'll probably see "Pound" or "Kilogram" in the Mass Units column. To see what the possibilities are, select the current entry for Units or Mass Units and select from the Value drop-down box (right above the "Delete Parameter" button). Density can be manually entered into the Density column. Both Mass Units and Units matter.

Density for your spool should be given in Mass Units/Unit format.

For example - if your mass units are kilogram and your units (length units) are mm, your density must be given in kg/mm. Note that this is not standard. If you look up wire properties in a manufacturer's catalog, they don't usually provide mass in kg/mm or pound/in. It's usually in pounds per foot... or some other more meaningful unit. You have to manually figure out the density for your units.

There are some other options for setting this property. Hopefully that gives you one option. If you need to edit the XML file or pursue other options on the Schematics side, we can probably discuss those, too. It's just a longer discussion!

Thanks,

-Brian