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nschams1-Visitor
1-Visitor
December 15, 2011
Question

Secret Cabling Techniques

  • December 15, 2011
  • 1 reply
  • 90900 views

I have heard of the functionality to control cabling through a word document outside of Pro/Engineer. Does anyone have any information on this that they would be able to share. We are currently routing wires from Creo Schematics in Pro/E.

Thanks,

Nick

1 reply

B
BrianMartin13-Aquamarine
13-Aquamarine
December 15, 2011

Hi Nick...

Thanks for asking the golden question!

The benefit of using Creo Schematics is that you can use it to tie your harness schematic to a physical cable routing in Creo (Pro/E). For those lucky enough to have Creo Schematics... and the skills and training to use it, this is a tremendous benefit. The package will export a file that helps you route physical cables in Creo automatically (well... almost).

However, you don't have to have Creo Schematics to autoroute cables in Pro/E. In fact, you can create your own autoroute files manually.... using notepad, MS Word, or any text editor. If you know the proper syntax, you can skip the Creo Schematics work and still autoroute.

To use this technique, you'll create your own neutral wire format (.nwf) file.

There are (3) subsections to the NWF file:

  • Spool Definition for Wires & Cables
  • Component & Connector Definition
  • Wire and Cable To/From Connection Mapping


PS: One final secret... you can actually autoroute with no special autoroute file at all. This is only ever alluded to in PTC documentation but it's totally possible. Having the file is much nicer, though. I'll save the tip on how to autoroute without a logical reference file for another time.

N
nschams1-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
December 15, 2011

Brian,

In regards to the neutral wire format (.nwf) If I already have the spool definitions, connector definitions, and wire to from information in Creo Schematics. How is this .nwf file any different than having that information in the schematic?

Currently I create my schematic, assign datasets to the wires, export the schematic as a .xml file. I than import the .xml file into Pro/Engineer and all my wire and to from information is brought across. I than assign my component to the appropriate designations and the wires will route to and from. If I want to alter the path I add coordinate points.

So I guess my main question is, where does this .nwf file save time and help with routing.

Sorry about all the questions, I am fairly new (1 year) to Creo Schematics (RSD).

Thanks,

Nick

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BrianMartin13-Aquamarine
13-Aquamarine
December 15, 2011

Hi Nick...

that last message was incomplete. I wrote a very long and intricate response with examples and other bits of advice... and then when I tried to post it, the system died and told me I was unable to update my post with the new response.

I can't get it back and I didn't save it separately. I wrote it in the PTC Community editor. I'll go back and rewrite it in a different format. I apologize... I'll have to get back to this later tonight.

Thansk!

-Brian\

The short answer to your last question is... it saves time because you don't have to mess with Creo Schematics for simple work.

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