Wiring harness design in CATIA V5 - 3D modeling Week 5 & 6 Challenge
Aim:
- Route two electrical harnesses per the given layout and interconnect them as a single harness assembly
- check for bundle continuity, and bundle warnings, and then provide annotations for the final harness assembly.
Objective:
- The objective of this project is to first route the two Harness A and Harness B as per the given harness layout.
Figure 1: Shows the layout of two Harness A and Harness B
The electrical connectors are represented by numbers in the above figure. There are 8 different types of connectors at 10 different locations.
2. Bundle continuity has to be checked for the two created harnesses.
3. After the two Harnesses are created, the next objective is to have them interconnected electrically.
4. Check for bundle warnings in Harness A and Harness B.
5. Add annotations to all the connectors in Harness A and Harness B.
Content:
The following steps are to be done to complete this project.
Step-1:
Define all the electrical connectors geometrically and electrically so that they can be used in the wiring harness.
Converting the Mechanical part into the Electrical part for that I followed the following steps.
Catalog creation:
STEP2-Create harness A and harness B as shown below by using the electrical harness workbench in CATIA V5.
First, all the connectors are placed at their desired locations. Second, bundle segments are created between the connectors with branch points and branches as shown below.
Bundle diameter is assumed to be 20mm, 15mm, 10mm, and 5mm for different bundle segments. The bend ratio is given as 1.4 and slack is given as 0% for all the bundle segments.
Harness B:
After all the connectors are defined, the workbench was switched to Electrical Harness Assembly where Geometrical Bundle was activated. All the connectors were routed using the Multi-Branchable Document command.
Harness A:
After all the connectors are defined, the workbench was switched to Electrical Harness Assembly where Geometrical Bundle was activated. All the connectors were routed using the Multi-Branchable Document command.
STEP3- After Harness A and Harness B are created the next step is to check the bundle continuity.
First, we have to make sure multi-branchable is selected and then we have to go to Edit>Search>Advanced>Electrical Workbench>Type-Bundle Segment>Attribute-Fully Connected.
Selecting the "TRUE" option will show all the connected bundle segments while selecting the "FALSE" option will show all the non-connected bundle segments.
For now, we will select the "TRUE" option and search for results. All the bundle segments in Harness A and Harness B will be displayed showing that there is bundle continuity in Harness A and Harness B.
STEP4- In this step, we have to interconnect the Wiring Harness A and Harness B electrically. There are a few steps that have to be followed to connect the two harnesses electrically.
- First, make a new product file in CATIA and rename it as "FINAL HARNESS ASSEMBLY". Make sure to open the three windows vertically as shown below.
- Second, copy both harness A and harness B and paste it into the newly created product file to make the final harness assembly as shown below.
- Third, at this stage, we can use manipulation tools found in the assembly design workbench in CATIA V5 to connect the two wiring harnesses. But, one should remember that by following this process the two harnesses will not be connected electrically. To properly connect them we have to go to the Electrical Assembly Design workbench and use the "connect electrical devices" feature as shown below.
- Fourth, once we are inside the electrical assembly design workbench we should electrically connect the male and female connectors as shown below.
STEP5- In this step, we will be checking bundle warnings in Harness A and B.
Geometrical bundle warnings are shown for Bend radius, Bundle diameter, and Vector position. If these values or inputs are incorrect then the yellow flash will appear in the tree structure next to the branchable with problems. Depending on the route of the bundle segment we can correct the issue by adding some extra slack or by changing vector position of the segment point. In our case, we have one error as shown below in Harness B in "branchable 3"
This error can be corrected by changing the direction of the routing. We should "reverse tangent" or change the direction of the routing at branch point 4 as shown below.
STEP6- In this step, we will be adding annotations for all the electrical connectors.
Annotations are used to show connector functions and additional information. They are defined in the Assembly Design Workbench of CATIA V5.
First, we have to choose a plane on which the annotation will be placed. Here we will be choosing the front plane as shown below for Harness A. We should make sure that the geometrical bundle is active before choosing the annotation plane.
Second, select the "flag note with ladder" function and then click on connectors individually. Give the necessary information to all the connectors as shown below.
After annotations are added to all the connectors we should change the annotation font size and color so they are easily visible.
STEP7- In this last step we have to convert our Final Harness Assembly file into IGS format. In order to do this we should follow the steps shown below.
Mechanical Assembly Workbench>Tools>Generate CAT Part from product
Once the CAT part is created the whole product file is converted into a single part. At this stage, it can be noticed that all the bundle segments are grey in color. So, we will go back and add green color to each bundle segment so that they look the same as the Final Harness Assembly.
Converting the .CATpart file to .igs file format.
CONCLUSION- Routing of the two electrical harnesses as per the given layout was achieved and interconnection between them as a single harness assembly was established. Both harnesses were checked and corrected for bundle warnings and bundle continuity. At the very end, annotations were added to all the connectors and the final harness assembly file was converted into IGS format.