Bundle

A Bundle represents a group of wires. It can have a defined length and any number of assigned coverings.

Bundles can only be added in the Layout View.

Adding Bundle

left-click-drag from the connection point of a Connector, Terminal, or Branch Point to another.

Setting Bundle Lengths

Select a bundle, then left-double-click the input field to set its length.

Typing Calculations

A length can also be a calculation, such as 40 + 30 + 40. While you type, the result is shown beside it (= 110 mm), and pressing Enter sets the bundle to it. This works in every length field, including the lengths and diameters in part details.

• A number without a unit is in the default unit wherever it appears, so 30 + 20cm in a millimetre harness is 230 mm.
• If every number states the same unit, the result keeps it: 30cm + 20cm is 50 cm. Otherwise the result is in the default unit.
• * (or x) and / scale a length by a plain number: 2 * 30cm is 60 cm, and 1200 / 4 is 300 mm. Multiplying two lengths together isn’t a length, so 10cm * 2cm is rejected.
• Lengths written side by side add up, so you can enter feet and inches as 5' 3", or 1m 20cm.
• Use brackets to group, such as (10 + 20) cm.

Assigning Coverings

right-click a bundle and select Assign Part, then search for or select a Covering, such as heatshrink, tape or braided sleeve. A bundle can have any number of coverings.

The context menu lists each assigned covering above Assign Part: select one to swap it for another or select Unassign part to remove it. Each covering is also shown as a part bar at the middle of the bundle when Show parts is enabled in the bottom right corner of the view; left-click a bar to swap or unassign its covering the same way.

To assign a covering straight from the Parts Catalog, choose Search parts catalog at the bottom of the dropdown, then select Assign to component on the part. To make a new covering, choose Create new covering part and pick its type from the list: Heat shrink, Corrugated tubing, Spiral wrap, Tape, Tubing, Braided sleeve or Covering. The new part is added to the harness and assigned to the bundle.

A cut-to-length covering takes the bundle’s length in the BOM; a fixed-length covering counts once.

Bundle Appearance

How bundles are drawn is set for each harness under Main Menu → Harness settings → Layout → Bundles. All three options are on by default.

Thickness

With Draw bundles at their estimated thickness, each bundle is drawn as wide as its estimated diameter: the wires running through it packed together, as in its cross section, plus both walls of every covering on it. A covering part’s wall is its Thickness, or an estimate for its type when that is empty. Thick trunks and thin branches can then be told apart at a glance, and Branch Points and terminals widen to fit them. Drawn widths are kept between a minimum and a maximum, so a single thin wire stays visible and a large trunk doesn’t swamp the components around it; an empty bundle is drawn at the minimum width. In formboard mode the thickness is drawn at its real size, with no maximum.

With the option off, every bundle is drawn at the same width.

Coverings and Wires

With Show coverings and wires on bundles, each bundle shows what is on the outside of it:

• A bundle with a covering is drawn as its covering: the ribs of Corrugated Tubing, the turns of Spiral Wrap with the wires showing between them, the wraps of Tape, or the woven strands of Braided Sleeve. Heatshrink, Tubing and other coverings are drawn as a plain sleeve in their colour.
• A bundle with several coverings shows the one most likely to be outermost, in this order: corrugated tubing, braided sleeve, spiral wrap, tubing, heat shrink, tape, then other coverings.
• A bundle with no covering is drawn as its wires side by side along it, each in its colour, with its stripe colour where it has one. A cable is drawn as one band in its jacket colour, and each wire of a twisted pair as its own band. Each band’s share of the bundle’s width is in proportion to the wire’s or cable’s diameter: its stated diameter, or the estimate from its gauge (Cross Sections).

Draw coverings and wires in colour draws coverings and wires in their part colours. Turn it off to draw coverings grey and a bundle with no covering as a plain line.

A selected, highlighted or dimmed bundle is drawn in one colour, keeping only the outline of its covering, such as the ribs of corrugated tubing or the turns of spiral wrap.

Setting the Bundle Path

You can use Layout Points to adjust the path of a Bundle.

Bundle Label

right-click a Bundle and type the label name in the Label box. left-click the button to select a colour. By default the label is shown at both ends of the bundle, except at an end that joins a Branch Point. You can also give each end its own label, draw one label in the middle, or label both ends and the middle (see Label Position).

A new label starts in the last colour you picked for a bundle label, in any harness, so if you use one colour throughout you only need to pick it once. Picking None is remembered too.

The label is drawn as a band along the bundle itself, with its text following the bundle round any bends. A label is only shortened, with an ellipsis, when it is longer than its share of the bundle.

Label Position

The button next to the label’s button shows where the label is drawn. left-click it to choose one of:

• Same label at both ends: the default.
• Different label at each end: see Different Label at Each End.
• One label in the middle: see Label in the Middle.
• Ends and middle labels: see Ends and Middle Labels.

Hover over the button to see the current position. When you’ve selected several bundles with different positions, the button shows … until you pick one for all of them.

Different Label at Each End

Select Different label at each end to give each end of a bundle its own label. The label box splits into a Start label and an End label, each with its own colour. Any label and colour you’d already set are copied to both.

The start label is drawn at the end the bundle was drawn from, and the end label at the other end. In this mode, labels are drawn at Branch Point ends too.

Choosing Same label at both ends or One label in the middle goes back to a single label, keeping the start label.

Label in the Middle

Select One label in the middle to draw the label once, centred halfway along the bundle, instead of at its ends. Like an end label, it follows the bundle round any bends and is shortened with an ellipsis only when it’s longer than the bundle has room for. The label box shows Middle label as its placeholder.

A middle label is also drawn on a bundle that runs between two Branch Points, where end labels aren’t shown, which makes it a good way to name a length of trunk.

When you add a branch point to a bundle with a middle label, the label stays on the half that starts at the end the bundle was drawn from, so it’s still shown once. When you delete a branch point that joins two bundles, a middle label on either of them carries over to the joined bundle.

Middle labels appear in the PDF export and on formboard panels as they do on the canvas.

Ends and Middle Labels

Select Ends and middle labels to give a bundle a different label at each end and another in the middle. The label box splits into a Start label, a Middle label and an End label, each with its own colour. Press Tab to move to the next label and Shift + Tab to go back.

As with different labels at each end, the start label is drawn at the end the bundle was drawn from, the end label at the other end, and both are drawn at Branch Point ends too. The middle label is drawn centred halfway along the bundle. A label with no text and no colour isn’t drawn, so you can leave out any of the three.

Switching to this position keeps every label that’s already drawn where it is: the labels at the ends stay, and a middle label stays in the middle. The labels it adds start empty. Switching from it to Different label at each end keeps the end labels, and to One label in the middle keeps the middle label.

Each end label gets up to a third of the bundle, or less when its text is shorter, and the middle label gets the rest. A label longer than its room is shortened with an ellipsis.

When you add a branch point to a bundle with ends and middle labels, the half that starts at the end the bundle was drawn from keeps the start and middle labels, and the other half keeps the end label. When you delete a branch point that joins two bundles, a middle label on either of them carries over to the joined bundle, along with the labels at its two ends.

Dashed Bundle Lines

A bundle with no wires running through it is shown as a dashed line when Dash empty bundles is enabled in the bottom right corner of the Layout view.