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.
The visual representation of the ribbon cable is comprised of multiple sweeps and possibly boundary patches. The visual representation can be divided up into 5 different types of entities.
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Ribbon Cable Sketch |
Since the ribbon cable is made up of multiple sweeps, a path sketch is required. When you create the initial ribbon cable, you create the underlying sketch. That sketch defines the path for the individual sweeps used for the visual representation of the ribbon cable. The sketch is only visible while you edit the ribbon cable or when the ribbon cable is displayed as centerlined. |
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Ribbon Body Representation |
To give the body a more ribbon-like representation, use a single line surface sweep. The line used for the profile of the sweep is the same length as the width value defined in the raw ribbon cable definitions use for the ribbon cable. |
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Conductor One Representation |
The representation for conductor 1 is created by another sweep. A circular profiled surface is swept using the same path as the ribbon body sweep (the ribbon cable sketch). The appearance specified in the library definition for conductor 1 is applied to the representation’s surface. There are times that the sweep for the ribbon body representation cannot be created. When this happens the ribbon cable is displayed as centerlined just like the wires and segments in the harness assembly that cannot be swept. There is an exception. When a ribbon cable is displayed as centerlined, not only is the ribbon cable sketch displayed, but the first and last conductor of the ribbon cable is also displayed. The diameter of the conductor 1 representation is determined by the display mode that is currently being used for the ribbon cable. If the ribbon cable is displayed as rendered, the diameter of the conductor 1 representation is equal to the height value defined in the library definition used for the ribbon cable. If centerlined is selected as the display mode for the ribbon cable, the diameter for the conductor 1 representation is very small, which gives it the appearance of a line. |
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Last Conductor Representation |
Besides the conductors that are represented by the last conductor representation, there are not many differences between it and the conductor 1 representation. It is a circular profile surface sweep with diameter determined by the height specified in the definition and the display mode. The main difference is the appearance that is applied to its surface. While the conductor 1 representation uses an appearance specifically called out for it, the last conductor sweep is applied with the appearance specified for the ribbon body. |
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Fold Representation |
You can add folds to your ribbon cable. Since the ribbon cable material or raw ribbon cable is not very thick, the folds are not layers of raw ribbon cable. They are representations that exist on a plane tangent to the ribbon cable. These folds are represented with the use of 1 or more triangular boundary patches, depending on the type of fold you are creating. Note: Selecting to use solid sweeps to model the harness assembly has no affect on a ribbon cable. The ribbon cable is always represented by surfaces. Because of this, ribbon cables do not have interference checking.
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