Generating a Formboard

Formboard lets you generate the formboard data from the 3D harness data keeping the components in an optimized plane or in a torsion free position.

This task shows you how to:

Before you begin: Open a 3D harness data in an authoring mode.

 

See Also
About the Formboard Generation Process

Generate a Formboard in an Optimized Plane

You can generate the flattened layout by ignoring the tangency of branches at a junction during the flattening.

  1. Select an electrical physical system or the required electrical branch geometries.

    You can click Select all to select or deselect all the electrical geometries.

  2. Click Validation to check the network connectivity.
    In case of discrepancies, the Validation button turns orange and the expanders between following are displayed:
    • Electrically disconnected branches: Under this, all the branches which are open ended or electrically disconnected are listed.
    • Branches without curve: Under this, all the branches which are not linked to any curve are listed.
    • Loops in data: Under this, all the elements which are forming the loop in the harness data are listed.
    • Check for multiple networks: Under this, all the networks connected to current electrical physical system are listed. By default, the biggest network among the connected networks is flattened.

      To flatten the required network, you can right-click the required network and click the Select network.

  3. Click Flatten status and select the branch to specify its flatten status between following:

    • : can be flattened
    • : cannot be flattened
    • : rigid flattened
    • : already flattened

    Any flatten status (except already flattened) is editable by successive clicks.

  4. Click Backbone, and then select a device or a branch as the start element of the harness backbone.

    The branch with color indicates the backbone with labels, START and END.

  5. Click Generate layout.

Generate a Torsion-Free Formboard

You can lay out a 3D design harness while keeping the tangency of branches at a junction. You can also solve the torsion during the process.

Before you begin: In Me > Preferences > App Preferences > 3D Modeling > Electrical and Electronic Systems > Electrical Manufacturing Preparation > Formboard expander, select the Component torsion free.
  1. Select an electrical physical system or the required electrical branch geometries.

    You can click Select all to select or deselect all the electrical geometries.

  2. Click Validation to check the network connectivity.

    In case of discrepancies, the Validation button turns orange . You can check the second step from the previous task for the available actions.

  3. Click Start element and select the required device as a start element of the layout generation.
  4. Click Generate layout.