Cabling sans Pro/Piping

[MattWright]

My company produces flexible waveguide yet does not have Pro/Piping. A length of flexible waveguide is named <Size>-<Length> in our BOM and ERP system because the form operation is a function of the top assembly. Currently, I am creating a custom part, naming it generically, and 'hiding' it from Pro E by putting it into a private folder outside of the search path. This cannot be optimal.

I have looked into flexible components, and though admittedly I don't have much experience with them, the only solution I see would involve creating a modifiable spline. But I cannot predict the number of bends or in what plane they would be, so this would require almost 'hot swapping' a point field, which I don't even know if that is possible.

At the end of the day, I just need a solution which works and provides incentive to model accurately; I would appreciate any ideas and solutions which others have found useful. If Pro/Piping is the way to go, (and if that supports something other than a hollow circle), then maybe someone could enlighten me on how I would approach the ROI to get that module purchased.

Thanks in advance,

Matt Wright

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[MikeFitch]

I've created them as straight wires and used 'symbolic representation' to hide the geometry on drawings. This gets the BOM callouts taken care of, but the positioning is obviously not explicit...

[MattWright]

Thanks for the tip. Here's my though process:

1. You are basically adding a placeholder to the BOM

2. This can also be accomplished via a Bulk Item

3. With the bulk item, you don't even have to model anything (it's simply a parameter list)

Now, that takes care of getting the correct callout in the BOM, and out of the model, so we can model a custom formed component, naming it, say <assembly>-<subcomponent> and Filter>By Item to remove that from the auto-bom.

Done. Simple and elegant, I like it!

Would the bulk item idea simplify work for you?

Thanks for getting my over the hump!

Matt Wright

[MikeFitch · Accepted solution]

I use bulk items extensively as well, but the method outlined above allows you to create a drawing of the item; in my case, the cable are almost always terminated, so I need the cable drawing itself to call out lugs, heat shrink, etc.

I think I've done something similar to what you're describing as well: I used to add a bulk item and then create a separate assembly with the same name to draw up. The pitfall with this approach was that when an exploded BOM report was run, the cable components were not included.