Secret Cabling Techniques

[nschams]

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

[BrianMartin]

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.

[nschams]

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

[BrianMartin]

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.

[mkemp]

Hi Brian,

In Creo Elements/Pro 5.0 and Creo Parametric 1.0 you can just create a new wire, define its end points (using the From and To collectors) and the system will autoroute it if a network is present.

Note that you will have to designate the connectors (and entry ports) that you're connecting to but once that's done you can route as many wires as you want!

Martin

[BrianMartin]

Hi Martin...

Yes, I knew that. You can do the same thing all the way back at least to Pro/E rev 19. It's amazing how many people don't know about this, though. I wrote such a long post on this... and then LOST it. I haven't been able to get the time to go back again.

Basically though, Nick has Creo Schematics up and running successfully... so there's not much benefit to using manual autorouting techniques. For the vast majority of users though, they can skip much of the pain of learning, configuring, and using Creo Schematics and get right to the autorouting if they use manual editing techniques.

You definitely CAN make a network, define the end points, and let the system do all the middlework. I still prefer the manual neutral wire file method though... because I don't want to define all those endpoints and designate all those connectors. I'd rather Pro/E do it all for me.

Hopefully I can get back to rewriting the missing post.

Thanks for your input... I'll make sure I add that piece in when I rewrite the mini-tutorial.

Best regards,

-Brian

[BrianMartin]

Well I seem to have totally dropped the ball on this one. I was psyched to write about autorouting from a text document. But yet Nick, the original poster, wasn't really going to benefit from any of those techniques.

If you already have RSD (Creo Schematics) running well and linked to the 3D side of Creo, you're pretty well beyond the need to use the manual files. However, I know from experience that MOST companies never get that far. Rather than writing a long tome here that wont really benefit this thread, I decided instead to create a full presentation encompassing the manual routing techniques and some other cool tricks I've developed over the years. I'm going to present this at the PTC User Conference in Florida in June. Hopefully that will be a better platform to cover these topics and one that will benefit the greatest number of people.

Of course in the meantime, if anyone has questions feel free to post them or email me. I always love talking about Routed Systems work in Creo and Creo Schematics.

Thanks!

-Brian

[Laszlo.Treszkai]

Anybody looking for the above-mentioned presentation can find it here:

http://communities.ptc.com/blogs/the_zone/2012/06/12/welcome-to-the-zone.

[BrianMartin]

Hey that's cool... someone linked me back to my own blog!

[Laszlo.Treszkai]

Hey Brian,

Could you please point me to the embedded videos and the NWF templates mentioned in your presentation?

Thanks in advance,

Laszlo

[BrianMartin]

Hi Laszlo,

I submitted those videos a couple of times in hopes that they'd come with the presentation but they never seem to work. I was working to redo them, too but now I'm just starting over from scratch for a newer, better, more comprehensive (and hopefully more impreessive) presentation for this year's PTC World Event presentation.

I've posted the NWF template files before along with the first dozen or so pages on how to decipher an NWF file. I have a whole bunch of work to do before my presentation this year (assuming, of course, that I am selected). I am still out of town right now and I have limited connectivity. When I return home on Friday I'll see if I can find the NWF template and either link to it... or repost it. The videos are sketchy because they were silent... and had no on-screen text or captions. I spoke as they played during the live presentation. Seeing them without the voice-over is not really that helpful. I do have them... but they really do little good in the state they're in.

I've been a bit hesitant to send them ouit to people simply for quality control reasons. In short... they're not good in the state they're in. They need to be edited with voice-overs and captioned... and shortened, too.

When I get back, let me see what I can do to get you something to work with.

Thanks!

-Brian

[Laszlo.Treszkai]

Hi Brian,

Have you found the templates? You left me somewhat hanging there...

Thanks!

Laszlo

[BrianMartin]

Hi Laszlo...

I've attached multiple files. First, there's a template file. It's not totally complete but it gives you about 80-90% of the options available. I also attached a sample.nwf file with some representative data populated in the fields. I also uploaded another sample file (sample_autoroute_file.nwf) with even more sample data.

I also attached the draft copy of the Neutral Wire Format guide I was working on. It was a larger undertaking than I anticipated but it goes through the wire spools fairly in depth. The knowledge contained in these files doesn't really come easily. There's very little documentation and putting together a comprehensive guide is a tough slog. Much of what I've learned has been from trial and error and from reading files exported from the cabling package itself.

You'll have to open these files and read through them. See what makes sense. If you have questions, go ahead and ask and I'll try to help. Fair warning though, I am taking 19 credits this semester at college, working full time + overtime at NASA, developing my presentation for the 2013 PTC conference, working on the Technical Committees, taking care of my family, and trying to keep up with everyone's messages and posts on PTC Community. Sometimes I may not be very responsive. I can assure you it's not that I've stopped caring... it's that sometimes I really just can't get to everything.

I hope this helps! Good luck!

Thanks!

-Brian

[Laszlo.Treszkai]

Dear Brian,

You cannot believe how much this helps me now. To put it simply, a lot I'll post my success story, if it comes to it...

Good luck coping with your things.

László

[Laszlo.Treszkai]

Hi all,

I (and my team) are in the process of designing the wire harness (which takes us a bit more time due to technical difficulties). I wrote a script which converts the schematic designed in Altium Designer – a schematic designer for electrical engineers – so there is no place for error on the manual data transfer.

However, I'm still not sure of the way we solved a couple of things. The most important thing is splices: I modelled a butt splice and put it in the model as a connector (and in the schematic beforehand) wherever there was a need to split cables. Brian mentioned in his draft of Ninja Complete that there is more info coming on splices, but I'm afraid he won't finish that book soon (although it'd have quite a success I think, even if it had a $50-$100 price tag on it). So, is there such a special thing as a splice, is it any better than using a general connector type for this purpose? If there is a Ninja way, that would be even better

We solved the problem of routing the network mainly by sketches and style features - the latter was better in some places since that allows manipulating the cables easier in 3D.

Next thing to come is finishing this up and creating the manufacturing documentation. There is a nice video of the process on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdCuAK5p9p8 The problem is that it is for Creo E/D, and not Creo Parametric 2.0

If you're able to help with any of these (splices, manufacturing docs), that would be awesome.

Thanks

László

p.s.: For some reason I just went italic, and I cannot undo it - niiice.

[BrentDrysdale]

Thanks Brian,

Have been wanting to look at cabling for another part of Tait and have looked at the PTCU stuff as of the end of last year. Have grabbed your attached files and will look at them soon. Sorry that financial constraints make this years conference a no-go as I would have liked to have seen your presentation live.

Regards from NZ. Brent Drysdale

[BrianMartin]

Hi Brent...

This years presentation is going to be rather insane. The goal is to teach people with no cabling experience how to "do cabling" in 30 minutes. I can't promise to teach every piece in such a short amount of time but I believe I can teach the important bits.

The goal is to make the whole thing much less scary for people. I've incorporated multiple videos into the presentation so it should be easy for everyone to understand. Everything will be uploaded to the PTC site so you should be able to view the entire presentation and grab all of the pertinent information even if you can't be at the live session.

You will miss some of the theatrics I have planned, though. It's my opinion that most of the presentations are boring and lifeless. To me, there's nothing worse than having someone SNORE through my presentation. I'm going to do my best to make sure that doesn't happen.

If you need any cabling help in the interim, please let me know. I've been off the grid a bit as of late but I'm starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. I hope to be able to contribute to PTC Community much more in the coming months.

Thanks!

-Brian

[Laszlo.Treszkai]

One interesting and not so unimportant thing to add to last year's ninja cabling quick reference: in many cases it's easier to use Style Curve features instead of sketches (because of their 3D capability), on which to put the network locations.

Have fun,

László

[BrianMartin]

Hi Laszlo...

Thanks for adding that note about 3D style curves. I usually don't mention style curves or simple 3D curves (created using the Intersection command) for several reasons. First, some people do not have access to the Style options... or they do have them but they do not understand how to use them. Second, it's not really necessary to route 3D curves in most cases. The idea behind Ninja Cabling is to show people that they can perform cable routing using so-called "advanced" techniques like autorouting without tons of specialized training. Routing cables is easy using a few pieces of specialized knowledge (which can be distilled down to a simple cheat sheet/checklist) and good basic modeling practices.

So many people want to learn cabling but they're daunted by the apparent complexity. PTC is happy to offer training classes on the subject which rather heavily imply you should be using Creo Schematics, too. Most of the time people come back from a 3-5 day PTC class without the slightest clue how to use cabling in their real world projects.

Ninja Cabling was just an attempt to pull back the curtain and show people how simple it could be. Therefore, I tried to stay focused on the very basics. Everyone knows how to create a basic sketch. Some people don't understand the uses and limitations of 3D curves so I avoid them. It's not that they can't be used... but that they usually are not necessary.

For this year's PTC Conference, I'm doing another cabling presentation. This time I've refined the Ninja Cabling process down even further. I've created a series of videos demonstrating the techniques and procedures. In 30 minutes I'm confident I can teach anyone to route their first cable. That's significantly faster than anything PTC teaches and it also sounds a little ambitious.

I'll make sure to add your suggestions about 3D and style curves to my written documentation. I'll add a credit to you as well. Thank you for contributing and for raising a very good point. I realize I owe you a response to a previous question. It wasn't until I saw you name here that I realized I never answered your email! I'll get back to that as soon as possible.

Thanks again...

-Brian

[Laszlo.Treszkai]

Hey all,

Found out a bit too late (in the middle of production) that the DEF_INTERNAL_LEN parameter is totally worthless in Creo 2. Use the parameter INTERNAL_LEN instead, but be aware that it is a parameter for the pin, and not for the connector.

Going to post the outline of the system and my scripts around May or June. Should anyone need to convert Altium schematics to Creo Cabling ASAP, just tell me.

Regards from Hungary,

László

[abrevik]

Hi

Do you still have the script for converting Altium Schematics to Creo Cabling?

Regards

Anders