In Reply to Dustin Crawford:
Most companies use datum points from coordinate system..to avoid a dependency. I personally..use skeletons to get my bearings, and then delete them after creating points. The one thing you do not want to do..is build a relationship to a top level model.
-Dustin
I respectfully have to disagree with Dustin on this point. The majority of companies I've ever worked with have simply routed right on top of their copy geometry (or worse on the assembly itself). Some have used the "points" method but in my experience, this isn't common.
Either way, both of those techniques are terrifyingly bad. As Douglas pointed out, copy geometry has limitations. Although some of these limitations can be mitigated, routing directly on the Copy Geom is still a bad idea. As for the points method, I find it stunning that people would resort to manipulating hoardes of datum points to control their harnesses. At Planet PTC 2012, I presented a technique I've used for at least 10 years to control harnesses easily without datum points. Even after all the progress we've made with the cabling package, the same techniques still hold value.
I agree you want to avoid building a relationship at the top level assembly... but otherwise I believe there are better ways to route a harness, control it, and modify it without jumping through hoops to do it.
Regards,
-Brian
