Electrical Cable Schematic Assembly Drawings in Inventor

[Anonymous]

Is there any resources on making schematic electrical cable assembly drawings in Inventor like the ones shown in the image. I have over 64 cables with a combination of end terminals and internal wires to represent in separate drawings.

Do I have to make 64 individual 3D models to be able to do this?, any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Anonymous 

Possibly one option is cable and harness in Inventor but most likely not what you're looking for.

Another option is to make them as iParts or an iAssembly.

Do you really need 3D models?

[Anonymous]

I absolutely do not need 3D models, just need to make 64 different drawings for different cable assemblies, that have end connectors in different mix and match configurations.

[NWeigand]

Hello adi94s.

Did you ever solve this problem in a different way than what you initially proposed?

[mcgyvr]

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@NWeigand wrote:

Hello adi94s.

Did you ever solve this problem in a different way than what you initially proposed?

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@NWeigand  What you need to do to replicate/document that in Inventor depends on the details of the items you are trying to detail. 

The original post really didn't cover specifics about the "64" variants enough to give a full answer.  Obviously if you need to see a drawing of the specific end connectors then you need to create a model of each connector at a minimum.

The "cable" portion of it could be modeled as a 3d sweep or simple extrusion or just done as a sketch on the 2d drawing only. The "schematic/pinout" portion is just more 2d sketches/text/tables,etc...

If its just a length difference then you simply need to put a generic "Length" dimension and a table can easily be used to define the multiple part numbers and their lengths all in one drawing. 

In general though Inventor doesn't have some magic easy button to just grab concepts out of your head and put them on paper or into the computer. We just need to sit down and do the work. 

[NWeigand]

Thx @mcgyvr , yeah I figured as much within the last couple hours 🙂

I got one assembly for the cable and in it the connectors as parts.

The drawing-tree should give a clue how it looks underneath.

Biggest problem is the pin out drawing as the drawing-sketch doesn't allow for guide lines within the sketch, that are not visible in the drawing. I had to put a vertical outside of the page to give me a vertical alignment guide for a repetitive feature (the similar twisted wires). The ellipses are also not easily adjustable/align-able due to that..
Aligning the numbers/text with that stuff is a can of worms again as well.

Luckily I only got one more cable to go, should be quicker now after I worked out how to do it.

[swalton]

There is an option to set drawing sketch geometry as "sketch only".  That geometry will not be visible after you finish the sketch.