Cable and Harness - use the bend radius as a constraint?

[nicholaskowalczyk2274]

Before I get into this, I *do* have the natural curvature option selected.

I want to define to Inventor:

   -A cable's gauge, core size, and OD

   -A cable's bend radius (the diameter multiplicand)

   -The connector pins (the wire's start and end points)

I want Inventor to define:

   -The minimum route the cable needs to follow to satisfy both <joining the wire to the two pins> and <the bend radius>

   -The length of the cable at that minimum route

I want Inventor to essentially not allow the wire to take a path that the bend radius would not allow it to take, much like how Inventor does not allow you to move a bolt mated to a plate to a position where the mate would not allow it to reside.

I am not trying to route harnessed #14ga wires through some kind of control cabinet to make connections at multiple points. I've already done that. I am trying to run thicker gauge high-voltage leads (#6 AWG to 500MCM insulated multiconductor wires) from one contact point to the next through mid-air, where the wires are not being supported by anything (tywraps, clips, etc.) as they travel from one contact to another. I waht to have Inventor tell me how long each lead needs to be (minimum) to make that connection, and add two inches to be nice to our shop people. In manufacture, the wires end up contorting through three dimensions in somewhat of a convoluted relaxed spline, by the nature of the locations and relative angles of the components that are being connected. I could never recreate the path they take with a 3D spline - doing so would be like over-riding the natural path the wires would want to take naturally. Too long of a wire, and it will droop and may break clearance (and cause the system to arc and fail). Too short, and Manufacturing can't assemble it.

With the bend radius checker, Inventor tells me that "these wires do not satisfy the bend radius, at these points," but then Inventor expects me to manually edit the points or the segment routing the cable. I do not want to do this, I want Inventor to do this for me. I essentially want to not have to define any kind of route, because doing so means that I'm not going to get the shortest possible length - I'll get whatever length I come up with, and I may be making my radii too large.

I have run through and scoured the tutorials, and they always point back to "manually adjust the segment or points on the wire to meet the bend radius requirements." It took me six hours to get one of my 30 wires to have a correct bend radius, and I have no idea if this is also the shortest possible wire I would need. I only know that Inventor is happy with my radii.

This is especially tedious to do if, say, I have to move the location of one of the components a connector is attached to, or change the length of the piece of frame that that component is bolted to. I have to go back into the harness and completely rework that wire (for another several hours) moving each point in the segment or on the wire spline incrementally, hundreds of times, then rechecking the bend radius each time, until I get the magical path that Inventor likes. But, again, I have no idea of it's the shortest possible wire I would need.

Help?!?!?!?

[mcgyvr · Accepted solution]

The cable/harness module is not that advanced.. It won't do it for you. I really wish they would step back and give the cable module a 100% overhaul. 

An "approximate path" function would be pretty nice along with a "relax points to meet bend radius requirements" option. So would a "service loop" function and MANY MANY other features.

Sorry.

I feel your pain though.. but since you are manually defining points Inventor won't infringe on your point placement..hence the need for the bend radius check tool.

[nicholaskowalczyk2274]

But hey, we have the ribbon! That's totally an improvement worth trading this functionality for.

[mcgyvr]

oh I love sarcasm...

[Bill.Bogan]

Here! Hear! (yes I did that on purpose)

If I set the wire length EXPLICITLY and the Wire Bend Radius EXPLICITLY, I expect those to be enforced. The requirement is very similar to the first thread in this topic.

[cencinaNB2ET · Accepted solution]

Any word on this feature yet in 2021?

[mcgyvr · Accepted solution]

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@cencinaNB2ET wrote:

Any word on this feature yet in 2021?

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@cencinaNB2ET  I've been told that the cable/harness environment doesn't have enough customers using it/demand to touch it with a 10 foot pole.. It gets no love at all. 

[james.blakey-milner · Accepted solution]

Just for the record we are using it and would like this functionality.

[jlacap]

If Autodesk is too lazy to fix this, does anyone know if Solidworks does this properly? We use this enough to possibly make it worth switching.