Pro/Cabling and network Problems

[JWayman]

This module is really difficult to figure out the work flow.

I have mastered (?) the art of routing a single wire from an entry port to another entry port. I have even managed to coax it to route the wire through a strategically placed P-Clip.

I now want to graduate to routing the single wire along a network made of a series of sketched curves. I used the CBL Route menu and picked the first entry port, then each curve segment, sequentially, until I reached the final entry port. I used Route, check continuity and it showed me a nice dotted line and confirmed the route is continuous.

When I click Autoroute, however, I get error #3, which is to do with not having entry ports in the network. But I do.

Now I am stuck. No idea what else to try.

Is it me, or does every user of this module have to go through this initiation ceremony before they can get it to do what looks simple?

Even by the old UI standards, the jumble of menus, one on top of the other, that comes up whenever I try to do anything in Cabling is pretty confusing. Now, which 'Done' do I click here?

There seems to be a real lack of useful tutorial or help-based stuff out there, beyond the single wire from point to point that I have already done. Like many others, I eagerly await the advent of Brian's videos and documents, but I understand that real work gets in the way, sometimes!

Any help would be welcomed.

Wildfire 4, m220

Thanks,

John

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[BrianMartin]

Hi John...

Ouch, Wildfire 4... your life will be so much easier when you get to anything after 4. It really breaks my heart that I can't be here more often to answer questions. Learning old school cabling was a bit like running a gauntlet... you had to take your lumps being beat up by the software until you got good enough to be productive. But occasionally I can steal 5 minutes when my workstation is stuck in limbo to write a quick response.

So you're getting the ol' "Error #3". Ugh.

It seems like you have done a continuity check, that's good. Other things you need to check...

• Double check your entry ports to make sure they're all designated
• In most instances, never "dead-end" your networks directly to your entry ports.
  • In other words... leave a gap between where your entry ports and where your network starts. Pro/E likes that little gap. The system will automatically decide how to handle that last little 'jump' from the network to the port.
• Make sure you do not have any overlapping location points. In some cases you're trying to link a location to another location... but the system picks a vertex instead. This is hard to describe in words but it's possible to have two locations on top of each other. This causes a tangency issue and stops your autoroute from working. In newer releases there's a function to check for such problems and resolve them but in WF4, you had to troubleshoot this stuff manually
• Insure you have good tangency all along your autoroute path. This usually shows up as, I think, Error #5 that says something like "a path could not be found" but it's still worth checking. If there's a sharp corner or a path without tangency, autoroute can fail.

Another things to try although less likely to solve the problem at hand... you can temporarily set the minimum bend radius of your spools to be artificially low. For example, set them to .02 or something ridiculously and unrealistically low. If the system can route with this low value, you can visually look at the routing and sometimes easily see where errors are coming from. You can also increase the value slowly regenerating after each tweak until you see where the problem is coming from. This is again another trick that works better with error #5 but sometimes I recall the system reporting error #3 when really the problem was a path issue and not an entry port issue.

See if any of those things offer any relief and let us know what happens.

Take care...

-Brian

[ptc-5008082]

Also make sure your entry ports can accept more that one wire if needed (entry ports with 'wire' can only accept one, entry ports with 'round' can accept multiple wires).

When the autoroute fails there should be a 'More Info' button somewhere and that creates a file with slightly more helpful information in it (excuse me being vague, not using cabling currently).

Don't use Done use the middle button (sometimes that helps a bit as Pro/E knows which order to close it's menus in, well mostly anyway - lol)

Try and manually autoroute the cable (if you see what I mean), use the Locations that are on your network and route the cable from the entry port through each of the locations you are asking it to autoroute through and to the last entry port. If there is a bend radius or tangency problem you might catch them as you go through.

Finally - don't give up, it's a bit of a black art (well, OK, a LOT of a black art) but you'll get there

[BrianMartin]

Well said Charlotte...

The entire point of Ninja Cabling is that it should not be a black art of any sort. Cabling should be as easy as making an assembly. It should be basic knowledge that all users can master within a few hours.