You can create a simple 2-point ribbon cable that goes from connector to connector, or you can add additional ribbon cable work points and folds to control the direction and shape of the ribbon cable around or through existing assembly geometry. These work points are offset from existing face geometry by a specified offset, which can be adjusted as you work. Once created, work points on the ribbon cable path are used to add folds and manipulate the ribbon cable into its desired position and shape.
The cable is created as rendered or centerline depending on the selected display setting.
You can define your ribbon cables as close to the desired results as possible and then adjust later, or you can develop them using work features you set when planning the ribbon cable path.
To create a ribbon cable you select 2 connectors, a start connector and an end connector. As you design, you can add additional work points where it is critical for the ribbon cable to adapt to changes in the assembly, or to control the direction of the segment around or through existing assembly geometry.
For more precise placement of work points, define work features at critical locations before inserting the segment. Work points associated to work features update when the model changes.
Ribbon cables can be displayed as rendered, 3-dimensional solids or centerlines. For optimal performance, use centerline mode while creating and editing ribbon cables. Like segments and wires, the display options can be set for individual ribbon cables or for all ribbon cables in a selected harness assembly.
The display preference can be set in 3 ways: the context menu, the Ribbon Cable Properties dialog box, or the Display Settings on the ribbon. The occurrence level display settings always override the current display state.
Ribbon cables are assigned Ribbon ID's as they are created. By default, the first ribbon cable is named RibbonCable1 where 1 is a number incremented by 1 for each cable created. You can accept the default name or change it to a name that is unique within the harness assembly. When folds are added the ribbon cable is broken into separate entities: a fold, and 2 ribbon cable portions. By default, the fold is named Fold1, and the ribbon portions Ribbon1 and Ribbon2.
Like traditional cables, there is no default ribbon cable for the first ribbon cable you create in a harness assembly. You must select a ribbon cable from the library to begin creating a ribbon cable. Once a ribbon cable is selected, the last selected ribbon cable is used as the default for subsequent insertions.
Ribbon cable work points created by selecting arbitrary points on a face, do not update to changes in the model geometry, including changes in positional representations. Work points based on the following geometry update to changes:
Once a ribbon cable is created, there are several ways to modify it:
Use the Create Fold command to add folds to ribbon cables. When you create a fold, the point you select for it is changed from a normal work point to a fold point. It also truncates the original path spline to the start of the fold and creates a new ribbon cable portion from the end of the fold to the other connector. Each of the involved entities (the original ribbon portion, the fold, and the new ribbon cable portion) has a node displayed in the browser tree.
The default orientation of the fold is from the start connector pointing in the direction of the next work point on the path. You can realign the fold using the two alignment buttons on the dialog box, and repeat the alignment as many times as needed. No constraint is established by the alignment, and the fold is not associative with any of the faces you select during the alignment process.