Computer Aided Design for Wire Harness Manufacture

A computer-based system has been jointly developed by a tractor manufacturer and a wiring systems manufacturer for use in design and data transfer of automotive -type electrical harnesses.

The difficulties of graphical data transfer between incompatible CAD systems have been bypassed. This is significant since the design drawing and the assembly drawing are geometrically different. The system design is based on the structuring capability of CAD and ASCII data exchange.

All design processes are controlled by the system and many are automated. The data transfer procedure eliminates design interpretation and keyboard data entry to the wiring manufacturer's database, reducing that process time from days to hours.