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

Created the assembly harness product as per given layout

To make a flattened view of any wiring harness we should be working in 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.

Defining Harness Flattening parameters

First, we have to 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 has to be noticed that the type 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 catalogue.

Extracting the harness assembly into newly created product file & flattering the extracted harness assembly

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

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".

For a better representation, we can use some other features like Bend, roll to streamline the harness. At this stage, fake scaling can be done for a few bundle segments if needed. For the current wiring harness both the "BEND" and "ROLL" features are used to bend and orient the bundle segments in the desired position.

After completion of Steam line preparing the drawing for flattering

Make a new drawing file and define the drawing parameters as shown below

Make sure that while importing the flattering harness and drawing sheet tile vertical as shown below.

Defining the drawing parameters

Make sure that the in "Graphic replacement" for devices "3D Projection" feature is "ON". This will help us to see the exact representation of the electrical connectors in the drawing file.

As per the objective of this project, we should make sure that the bundle segments and protective covering are represented differently.

"SINGLE LINE" - Bundle Segment

"DOUBLE LINE" - Protective Covering

Final drawing preview of flattern file with layout, Bill of Material as shown below