About the Formboard Generation Process

The Formboard command enables the generation of the formboard in one single process that groups several steps.

The formboard generation process lets you easily generate the layout and manage the backbone and the torsion.

Important: This process only enables:
  • The generation of a formboard layout on the XY plane.
  • The generation of the formboard layout of an entire harness.

This page discusses:

See Also
Procedure for Generating a Straightened and Torsion-free Layout
Generating a Flattened Layout

Formboard Process Panel

The Formboard process panel is the interface which allows you to follow and manage the generation of your formboard.

In the Formboard process panel, the Report panel displays detailed information about an on-going action in below tabs:

  • Selection
  • Validation
  • Backbone Selection
  • Layout Option
  • Generate Layout

Under Processes, the steps to perform to generate the formboard are displayed. During the generation process, icon appears for each step to indicate the status of an action:

Color Description


Process in progress


Process successfully completed
Process completed with warning
Error during step

A process is not validated as long as the next action button is not clicked.

Depending on the selection of the option under Component orientation, available in Me > Preferences > App Preferences > 3D Modeling > Electrical and Electronic Systems > Electrical Manufacturing Preparation > Formboard expander, the available processes in the panel are different. For more information, see Generate Layout.

  • Available processes when the Closest preferred plane option is selected:
    Process Description
    Harness Identification
    • Validation: Validates the selected content.

      An icon appears on the button to indicate that the process is completed despite the warning.

    • Backbone: Lets you specify the start and the end points of the backbone.

      When you specify the start and end point, the Harness identification button is displayed with the icon.
    Layout Options
    • Lets you select an orientation vector for the start device of backbone.
    • Manages the flatten status of your branches.
    Generate Layout Generates and opens the formboard layout in another tab.
  • Available processes when the Component torsion free option is selected:
    Process Description
    Validation Validates the selected content.

    An icon appears on the button turns yellow to indicate that the process is completed despite the warning.

    Start element Enables to select a device as start element.
    Generate layout Generates and opens the generated formboard layout in another tab.

At the completion of the process, the Formboard process panel is available in the tab of the harness data. Moreover, closing the panel is impossible while a process is on-going.

Backbone Management

The formboard generation process enables to easily identify and customize the backbone of the harness.

It lets you specify the start and end points of the backbone.

Important: Managing the backbone is only possible when the Closest preferred plane option is selected. For more information, see Generate Layout.

The backbone is composed of the branches which are identified as the spine of the generated layout. Once generated, the backbone is aligned on the x axis and the rest of the content is placed around it. The secondary and tertiary backbone are aligned accordingly.

Torsion Solving

When you select the Component torsion free check box under Component orientation, available in Me > Preferences > App Preferences > 3D Modeling > Electrical and Electronic Systems > Electrical Manufacturing Preparation > Formboard expander, the formboard generation process enables the generation of a harness with no torsion.

Note: The generation of a torsion-free harness is guaranteed only for a harness designed with no loops.

The process generates a torsion-free layout in which the tangency at branch junctions is kept. As a consequence, all the branches are straightened without being laid out on the same plane:

  • The start device and its connected branch are flattened and aligned with the x-axis.
  • The rest of the connected network is straightened and oriented so as to solve torsion.
  • The structure of the entire 3D design harness is kept in the straightened harness.