Wiring harness design in CATIA V5 - 3D modeling Week 5 & 6 Challenge

Electrification of Connectors:

1) Open the downloaded Connector .stp files in CATIA. Switch the workbench to the Part design if it's present on another workbench.

2) For the bundle connection to the connector, choose the centre of the back face and create a point

3) For defining the connector point, create a midpoint for the connector face and set up the axis in a way that Y-Axis points to the connection direction, X-Axis points to the locking system and Z-Axis to the remaining phase on either side.

3) Electrify the connector by using Define Connector.

4) Select the Define Bundle Connection Point icon and select the Representation and Initial Point for the Connector back face, Bundle point for the centre point.

5) Select Define connector connection point then Select Representation for the midpoint, Contact for male and female connector connecting face, Coincidence for Y-axis and Orientation for X-Axis

6) Create a product in Electrical Harness Assembly and Select Geometrical Bundle tool. The product will be electrified. 

7) Place all the respective connectors as per the provided layout with the use of Smart Move snap, Compass and Manipulation tool. 

8) Click on the Multi-branchable icon, route the harness from the connectors as per the layout provided. 

Bundle Warning issue and rectification:

1) For one of the harnesses there is an issue with the harness branch as per the below snap due to bundle direction.

2) Shift the bundle direction to the other side so that there is enough movement of the harness from the trunk harness. 

3) Also for the other branch, to have the branch breakout be in the same direction from the trunk, Create a line to the direction we need to have the breakout and have the tangent selected to the line as per the below snap. 

4) Click on the Route Definition -> Click on the point you want to change the tangent for-> Select Contraint type to From Curve -> Select the line in Element section -> Apply

5) The bundle segment will take the tangent for the line and no issue arises. 

Cable Continuity:

1) Once the harness bundle is done. Goto Edit -> Select Search -> Goto Advanced-> Select Workbench: Electrical, Type: Bundle Segment, Attribute: Fully Connected, Select: False -> OK

2) Click on Search. If there are no items found on the down section the bundle is fully connected and there are no linking problems. 

3) If selected True all the connections which are connected will be shown as per below.

Annotations:

1) Switch to Mechanical Assembly to add annotations. 

2) Click on View Creation and select the plane we need to use for the creation of the annotation. 

3) Click on Flag Note with Leader - > Select the Connection side and type the name of the connector we need to use

4) Click on Text with Leader -> Select the connector side and type the description which needs to be added and save the part. 

5) Below is the snap for both harnesses with annotations.

CAT PART Creation:

1) Goto Tools - > Select Generate CATPart from product - > Choose the name of as per the choice -> CATpart gets created -> Save

2) Open the CATPart file which got created. Goto Files -> Save As -> Select the .igs format and Save -> CATIA converts the parts to .igs format. 

3) Attached are the CATParts for both the Harnesses. 

Below is the snap from the Combined product with both Harness A and Harness B

Thanks,

Uthej