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(continued...) Wires can be grouped together into cables using a Cable ID property.
When wires are part of the same cable, they are routed and un-routed together with the cable diameter properly factored into the channel diameter calculation.
If connectivity of the individual wires within a cable is not important then a cable can be simplified to a 'super wire' and be represented as a single wire equal to the diameter of the cable.
Shielding can also be represented, with electrical connectivity captured by being modelled as an additional wire with special properties to indicate that it is a shield.
Ground and unconnected pins can be included to represent shield wire terminations.
Signal types can be defined allowing interference checking to be conducted using design rules to check for incompatible signal types that share the same channel.
EMbassyWorks currently offers ten design rule checks including maximum channel diameter, maximum wire length, maximum percent full for channel diameter, wire and channel bend radius, and gauge.
Custom design rule checks can be written using Visual Basic scripting and EMbassyWorks's Application Programming Interface.
Wire run lists, bill of materials, connector pin lists, and many other reports can be created as ASCII reports with EM-ReportWorks.
Any property data added to EMbassyWorks objects can be output via the report generator and used as BOM drawing sheet data if required.
Graphical documentation can be created as SolidWorks drawing views showing overall harness runs or specific connector details.
Flattened representations of the harness can be automatically created with the external EM-NailboardWorks application, either 1:1 for manufacturing layout or as not-to-scale documentation.
The harness can be straightened and annotated with associative dimensions and EmbassyWorks properties.
Any changes made to the harness in 3D, including adding, moving or deleting wires, moving channels and property changes, are reflected in the nailboard.
In addition to wire harness design, Embassy can be used to model any flexible, round section system such as hydraulics and fibre optics but is not currently optimised for flex circuits or ribbon cables.
EMbassyWorks is available as a node locked or floating license.
CAD modelling of harness design eliminates the need to wait for a hardware prototype, allowing experimentation with various harness topologies or routing strategies, backed up by design rule checking to ensure a practical solution is reached.
Although EMbassy is available as a standalone product, for users of SolidWorks the seamless integration and associativity with an existing mechanical model is a great benefit.
All aspects of the design data is stored together, and changes can easily ripple through design documentation minimising the risk of incompatible versions.
EMbassy brings together the logic within schematic capture tools such as OrCad, Viewlogic, Mentor Graphics and the geometric, spatial requirements of the physical product before costly hardware is manufactured.