design-engine
New member
Since there are so many people trying to learn Pro/CABLE on their own and there are so many Pro/CABLE jobs left unfilled I was thinking of starting a discussion for improving the tools. In this way I will describe a workflow which might help others to learn the tool and offer a forum for discussion at the same time. Pro/CABLE and RSD are difficult tools to learn on your own for multiple reasons... and many don't know where to start. For example to flatten a harness no one would think to use the Pro/MAN module and in my detailed descriptions to explain a problem and offer a solution Ill mention specifics like Pro/MAN and now you understand that that may be how I proceed.
Maybe we can effect changes for future releases and in effect create a more useful tool Anyone care to add to the list? Ill start it out in no particular order.
Pro/CABLE
1. There is a fan out tool in the fan portion of the MFG part of Pro/CABLE. I would like an un-fan tool to reverse that what has been fanned. When i bring it up I'm told when bringing up this problem not to route to each individual conductor instead to one Central CSO on the connector and use Packing to manage those locations. Did not address my concern however I do teach both ways.
2. And speaking of fan out tools... A typical process to get the wires to fan out is to dissemble the connector and reassemble it to the shorter wire then use flatten;layout;close loop to reconnect the deleted wires then try fan out again to get the wires to look appropriately into their perspective entry ports. Comments?I want fan out tools to be more relaxed and just let me stretch the wire 4% to fit. Comments?
3. using MFG module to flatten my harness. If I obtain an undesirable attempt at my flatten process I don't want to have to start over. I would like to delete my attempt and choose a new start point. With this work flow I don't have to start the MFG process again.
4. Maybe i will get corrected and learn something myself but it seams to me that when I create a bundle along path and there is a failure it can be near impossible to wade through the fail mode tools as there are often failure associated to an improper spool parameter modification. (WF4.0 and before)
5. I would also like to be able to extrapolate my wires from the bundle if i so chose to delete my bundle. Does anyone have a work around for this??? Of course it's easy to just re route my wires since I'm using RSD right but then there is a chance I could ruin my layout of the flattened harness as often significant repairs or changes
6. (ill figure this out out this week probably) For Bundle Creation I want a parameter/option to control outer diameter regardless of wire sizes. Sheath type conversions to tube to emulate Plastic Conduit for example. That parameter in the Bundle spool is 'read only' tho????
7. When creating a flattened harness often times in a complex branch, one wire portion will fail. to solve this we modify the leg to an accurate angle and use close portion to re establish the open portion. I would like to be able to fudge the junction from 30 degrees to say 90 degrees and receive an error rather than to have the harness fail.
RSD related this will be a long list so check back often
1. The drawing tools inside RSD for creating symbols is a little awkward. The drawing tools could be more autoCAD like or more Pro/E drawing esk. Maybe it's just preference issue or similar to electrical drawing tools that I'm not familiar with. Anyone try to make a square with radius's? Medusa like. Uggh!
2. Using Excel is fine for me to create spool data. However I think there should be a spool editor in RSD's 'Dataset selector' that will allow me to add the four spools I forgot in excel and add them on the fly in RSD. Comments one way or the other?
3. Import a package. Maybe I am wrong to think of a completely different system, maybe one like how AutoCAD manages a symbol library or how X-Refs preform.... but it seams to me the import package ordeal is awkward. For one if I am to import a package and compare a new symbol called the same thing as one that I already have then I would need a picture for comparison. I am probably missing something and should not even bring it up?
4. When adding parameters I want to use Microsoft standards like we have been sold on and strike a letter 'm' for model_name parameter for example and just strait to the first 'm' in the list.
5. when opening a design I want to be able to use the Microsoft standard window so I can use my date/time like in a standard explorer window. Or better stated, I want to be able to use those icons that I have grown to appreciate.
6. Jumper wire. I want one conductor (call it W-1) to be able to route from multiple ports on the same block's entry port and for that to translate to the equivalent connector.
7. I would like to rename some often confused vocabulary in RSD. Take for example symbols. In AutoCAD (an industry standard) to insert a block you simply create a separate file and insert that block. 'Block' Good name right. So in RSD we call a symbol also a 'block'. Fair enough. In RSD there are basically four modules. You can create Wiring Diagrams, PD&ID Diagrams, Circuit Diagrams, and Flow Diagrams. Unfortunately Flow diagram in RSD are called a 'Block Diagram'. So we have blocks and a block and both are differnt. A bit confusing. So I suggest we change the name of a Symbol to from a block to something else like 'symbols'.
Edited by: design-engine
Maybe we can effect changes for future releases and in effect create a more useful tool Anyone care to add to the list? Ill start it out in no particular order.
Pro/CABLE
1. There is a fan out tool in the fan portion of the MFG part of Pro/CABLE. I would like an un-fan tool to reverse that what has been fanned. When i bring it up I'm told when bringing up this problem not to route to each individual conductor instead to one Central CSO on the connector and use Packing to manage those locations. Did not address my concern however I do teach both ways.
2. And speaking of fan out tools... A typical process to get the wires to fan out is to dissemble the connector and reassemble it to the shorter wire then use flatten;layout;close loop to reconnect the deleted wires then try fan out again to get the wires to look appropriately into their perspective entry ports. Comments?I want fan out tools to be more relaxed and just let me stretch the wire 4% to fit. Comments?
3. using MFG module to flatten my harness. If I obtain an undesirable attempt at my flatten process I don't want to have to start over. I would like to delete my attempt and choose a new start point. With this work flow I don't have to start the MFG process again.
4. Maybe i will get corrected and learn something myself but it seams to me that when I create a bundle along path and there is a failure it can be near impossible to wade through the fail mode tools as there are often failure associated to an improper spool parameter modification. (WF4.0 and before)
5. I would also like to be able to extrapolate my wires from the bundle if i so chose to delete my bundle. Does anyone have a work around for this??? Of course it's easy to just re route my wires since I'm using RSD right but then there is a chance I could ruin my layout of the flattened harness as often significant repairs or changes
6. (ill figure this out out this week probably) For Bundle Creation I want a parameter/option to control outer diameter regardless of wire sizes. Sheath type conversions to tube to emulate Plastic Conduit for example. That parameter in the Bundle spool is 'read only' tho????
7. When creating a flattened harness often times in a complex branch, one wire portion will fail. to solve this we modify the leg to an accurate angle and use close portion to re establish the open portion. I would like to be able to fudge the junction from 30 degrees to say 90 degrees and receive an error rather than to have the harness fail.
RSD related this will be a long list so check back often
1. The drawing tools inside RSD for creating symbols is a little awkward. The drawing tools could be more autoCAD like or more Pro/E drawing esk. Maybe it's just preference issue or similar to electrical drawing tools that I'm not familiar with. Anyone try to make a square with radius's? Medusa like. Uggh!
2. Using Excel is fine for me to create spool data. However I think there should be a spool editor in RSD's 'Dataset selector' that will allow me to add the four spools I forgot in excel and add them on the fly in RSD. Comments one way or the other?
3. Import a package. Maybe I am wrong to think of a completely different system, maybe one like how AutoCAD manages a symbol library or how X-Refs preform.... but it seams to me the import package ordeal is awkward. For one if I am to import a package and compare a new symbol called the same thing as one that I already have then I would need a picture for comparison. I am probably missing something and should not even bring it up?
4. When adding parameters I want to use Microsoft standards like we have been sold on and strike a letter 'm' for model_name parameter for example and just strait to the first 'm' in the list.
5. when opening a design I want to be able to use the Microsoft standard window so I can use my date/time like in a standard explorer window. Or better stated, I want to be able to use those icons that I have grown to appreciate.
6. Jumper wire. I want one conductor (call it W-1) to be able to route from multiple ports on the same block's entry port and for that to translate to the equivalent connector.
7. I would like to rename some often confused vocabulary in RSD. Take for example symbols. In AutoCAD (an industry standard) to insert a block you simply create a separate file and insert that block. 'Block' Good name right. So in RSD we call a symbol also a 'block'. Fair enough. In RSD there are basically four modules. You can create Wiring Diagrams, PD&ID Diagrams, Circuit Diagrams, and Flow Diagrams. Unfortunately Flow diagram in RSD are called a 'Block Diagram'. So we have blocks and a block and both are differnt. A bit confusing. So I suggest we change the name of a Symbol to from a block to something else like 'symbols'.
Edited by: design-engine