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

Aim: To create two different harness bundles as per given drawings and create a final assembly of those bundles.

Objective:

1. Define the given connectors as electrical components.
2. Create a wire harness bundle separately as per given drawings.
3. Check for bundle continuity.
4. Generate CATPart from Product.

Theory: The harness drawings are shown below:

Fig. 1: Given harness drawings.

Define Electrical Components:

1. There are 10 components given to be assembled as per above drawings.
2. Open the part in CATIA V5. Insert Point and Axis Systems in Part Design Workbench.
3. In the ‘Electrical Part Design’ Workbench, define the components as Electrical Connectors with appropriate Terminations.
4. Define the Connector Connection Point.
5. Define the Bundle Connection Point.

The connectors are as shown below:

Fig. 2: Electrically Defined Connector 1

 

Fig. 3: Electrically Defined Connector 2

Fig. 4: Electrically Defined Connector 3

Fig. 5: Electrically Defined Connector 4

Fig. 6: Electrically Defined Connector 5

Fig. 7: Electrically Defined Connector 6

Fig. 8: Electrically Defined Connector 7

Fig. 9: Electrically Defined Connector 8

Fig. 10: Electrically Defined Connector 9

Fig. 11: Electrically Defined Connector 10

Creating the Harness Assembly:

1. Open a New Product in CATIA V5.
2. Import connector from 1 to 5 to create Harness B as per given drawings.
3. In Assembly Design, use Manipulation tool to approximately place the connectors as per the drawing.
4. In ‘Electrical Harness Assembly’, use the ‘Geometric Bundle’ command to convert into Electrical Assembly.
5. Create a bundle between connector 1 and connector 5.
6. Add a Branching point at some distance along this bundle.
7. Create a harness bundle from the branch point to the connectors 2, 3 and 4.
8. Save it as CATProduct.
9. Use 3D annotations to name the corresponding connectors.
10. Convert the Product file into CAT Part.
11. Follow similar steps to create a wire harness bundle for Harness A.

 

Fig. 12: Isometric view of Harness A.

 

Fig. 13: Isometric view of Harness B.

Creating the main harness assembly:

1. Open a new product in CATIA V5.
2. Import the Harness A and Harness B assemblies.
3. Use manipulation tool to approximately place the bundles according to the given drawings.
4. In Electrical Assembly Design, use ‘Connect Electrical Devices’ command to connect together the connectors 5 and 6.
5. Save It.
6. Convert CAT Product into CAT Part.

Fig. 14: Isometric view of Final Harness Assembly.

Checking Bundle Continuity:

1. In the individual Harness Assemblies, go to Search command or press Ctrl+F.
2. In Advanced tab, select Electrical Workbench and type as ‘Bundle Segment.
3. Select ‘fully connected’ attribute and select ‘FALSE’ to view any bundle is disconnected or not.

 

Fig. 15: Bundle Continuity of Harness A

Fig. 16: Bundle Continuity of Harness B.

Conclusion: Wire harness bundles were created as per the given drawings and assembled together.