Wiring harness design in CATIA V5 - 3D modeling Week 7 Challenge

AIM- To prepare a flattened view of a previously created harness assembly

OBJECTIVE- The objective of this project is to create a flattened view for a harness assembly and then place it on the drawing sheet. It is desired that the bundles with protective coverings are represented with different visuals on the drawing sheet.

FIGURE1: PREVIOUSLY ROUTED HARNESS ASSEMBLY FOR WHICH FLATTENED-VIEW HAS TO BE CREATED

To make a flattened view of any wiring harness we should be working on the Electrical Harness Flattening workbench of CATIA V5. We should make sure that the flattening file should be in the same folder where you have all the parts of the harness assembly.

CONTENT-

The following steps are to be done to complete this project.

STEP1- Defining Harness Flattening parameters

First, we should make a new product file inside the Electrical Harness Flattening workbench. Second, we should define the harness flattening parameters by clicking on its icon as shown above. In the general tab, we should select the settings as shown above. After the general tab settings are complete we should define the settings for the drawing tab as shown below.

It should be noticed that the types of representation for the bundle segment and protective covering are different from each other. Also for devices, "3D projection" can be used if the connectors are added to the electrical drawing catalog.

STEP 2- Rename the product file as the Flattening Product.

STEP 3- Bring the harness assembly into the newly created Flattening Product by using the "Extract" feature.

First, we should align the Flattening Product and Harness Bundle tabs vertically. Now, as shown below, we should use the "EXTRACT" feature in the electrical harness flattening workbench to bring the harness assembly into the Flattening product.

It should be noted that our geometrical bundle assembly or harness assembly file is now changed to an "EHF" file which stands for "Electrical Harness Flattening".

STEP4- Flattening of the harness

To flatten the harness we should select the flatten plane and then select all the branches present in the harness assembly as shown below.

The above image shows the raw flattened view of the wiring harness along the selected XY-Flattening Plane.

STEP5- Rotate the bundle segments

All the bundle segments if needed should be rotated in the desired direction as needed by using the "Rotate" feature in the flattening workbench. It should be noted, that as we have "XY-plane" as the flattening plane so we should make sure that we rotate the bundle segment only along the "XY-plane".

Answer.

Above image shows the Harness Assembly completed in Week 4 Challenge and routing of the same is shown as below image.

Step 1: Here, we have to define flattening parameters in Electrical Harness Flattening Workbench.

In above image, we have to ensure that the bundle segment and protective covering representation should be different from each other. Also for devices, we have to keep '3D Projection' on if actual connectors are used in given electrical drawing.

As above image is showing that we have created product file for flattening of Harness Assembly and we have to rename the same file as Flattening Product.

Step 2: Now, we have to bring Harness Assembly into newly created Flattening Product by using 'Extract" command in 'Electrical Harness Flattening' workbench. Here, we have to tile both the files(Flattening Product & Harness Assembly) vertically.

In above image, we can see that the moment we extract Geometrical Bundle Assembly file, it get changed to EHF which stands for Electrical Harness Flattening.

Step 3: We have to flatten the given Harness Assembly and for that we have to choose plane or face of the connector after that select all branches of the Harness Assembly.

Above image shows the flattening view of the Harness Assembly where connector face is selected that is along YZ plane.

Step 4: Now, we have to use Rotate command and rotate the bundle segments as below images.

Above image shows that the bundle segments are rotated at required position along YZ plane.

Step 5: Here, we can use other commands like Bend, Roll, Straigthen, Scale etc. for better representation of the Harness. We can give fake scaling if needed. Currently, we have used Roll command to roll the bundle segment at particular direction as shown in below images.

Step 6: Now, our flattening product is ready and we have to make drawing view for it. So, below image is showing that how to create drawing file for the flattening product.

As we have said in our Project objective that bundle segments and protective coverings should have different visuals. So, below image is showing the double line protective covering.

Below image is showing the single line bundle segments.

Here, we have used the colors for 3D projected devices as shown in below image and it is the final drawing view of the flattening product. For better look, print and to understand we should keep drawing view black and white.

And this is the Final flatten view of the Wiring Harness Assembly as shown below-