Creo Parametric - Connectors for Cabling [Tutorial]

in this video I'm going to show you how to create a connector model and set it up for routing cables and even if you don't do routed systems there's a lot that you can learn in this video because I'm going to show you how to import geometry how to create datum features how do you sketch her datums point patterns and also component interfaces so first off let's create our brand new part and this is going to be for what people commonly call an Ethernet connector or in rj45 RJ stands for a register jack but technically this is going to be an eighth position eighth contact connector and I'll click OK and I'll show you in a little bit why it's technically not an rj45 so first off I'm not gonna create a bunch of features I don't want to do that I'm going to import the geometry and the great thing is there are a lot of great companies who have put models on their website so for example this geometry I got from the molex website and so I'm selecting the step file here I have my file import dialog box I'll click the ok button out of here and the geometry comes in then I can click the check mark and again I have to give mad props out to molex for having so many CAD files on the website some of the other places that you can check out include digi-key te Tyco Electronics and fin all those companies have a lot of step files and other different CAD format files on their websites and besides that you can also look on grab CAD and 3d content central again it's just gonna save you tons of time and effort for creating the different models ok so I've got my geometry in my model unfortunately my works not over yet for routing wires and cables I'm going to need some coordinate systems for the wires to enter and exit out of the cable and there are two different approaches that you can take you can either create a single coordinate system for all the wires and conductors that are going to come into here or you can create individual coordinate systems for each wire and I'm gonna show you both methods I'm gonna show you both methods using two other different methods so bear with me all right so first off single coordinate system well to create the single coordinate system I'm going to click on the coordinate system icon and I'm going to locate it at the intersection of the datum plane front and this datum plane and this surface and the important thing is that the z-axis is pointing out of the model it is pointing out of the model that's the direction that the wire is going to run but I don't like the orientation the coordinate system so I can flip it and whoops wrong one flipped let's try flipping this there we go that's the orientation that I want and then from the properties tab I'm going to change the name of the coordinate system and when the industry convention seems to be that if you're just going to use a single coordinate system people call it entry and then if you're using a program like creo schematics for logical referencing you have to make sure that the pins have the entry port parameter set to entry as well so I'll click OK and there I have my entry port coordinate system let me turn off my datum plane visibility for a moment and so you'll notice that my wires are supposed to run into here and into the back and right now I've got my coordinate system at the back surface over here if you do this be certain that you use the DEF internal lens which is short for default internal length parameter to some value greater than 0 because you don't want to build your wires in the real world and lay them out and they're gonna get right up to the front surface here and not actually touch the contacts inside so one method is that to locate and the coordinate system out here at the back and then use that default internal length parameter but I'm gonna show you the other method where I'm going to place my coordinate systems exactly where I want the virus or an a2 then I don't have to worry about adding in that fudge factor of that def internal Len parameter okay before I do that though I'm gonna create a couple other different datums to use a lot of times people might put a datum axis along the routing direction so I can do that let's click the axis icon and then I'm gonna use the filter in the lower right corner of the screen to change the coordinate system axis just be easier for me to pick the z axis over here and for properties I'm gonna call this axis routing so I know exactly what it does and another thing on let me turn on my axis visibility another thing that people often do is they'll also create a point located along that axis so that when you're routing wires and cables you can have a point for the cable going through that other point but I find that to be a bit of overkill all right so those are two of my first datums but I'm going to hide them because they'll clutter up the screen for what I'm going to make next let me also hide my default coordinate system and next up that other coordinate system that you see is the result of the import feature all right now I'm gonna create coordinate systems that go for each of the pins and to do this I'm actually going to use a sketch or datum so let's create a sketch and again I'm gonna locate it right up on the surface that the wires are gonna wrap all the way to now let me change I'm gonna have for orientation the surface face the top of the screen now I'll click the sketch button to get into sketcher and creo parametric suggest some sketch references to me but I'm going to use some different ones and again molex thank you very much this imported geometry is great because it's got where the wires are actually gonna round I'm gonna pick these different surfaces as references and get rid of the ones that Creole automatically suggested to me that the solve button is fully placed and let's go to my sketch orientation so hopefully you can see in here maybe I'll change to a non shaded mode let's change to a wireframe mode you can see that my sketch references are positioned exactly where I want the coordinate systems to be and from here I can create coordinate systems in my sketch and they turn out to have the right orientation Z pointing out in the direction that the wires are going to run and I'm just dropping them in here let's change back to a shaded with edges mode and so I'm gonna have in this sketch are these sketcher are these coordinate systems which are gonna create actual coordinate systems in my model here I have weak dimensions you should never leave sketch mode with weak dimensions so I'm just gonna swipe a box over them and hit ctrl T and that's a quick way of making them strong dimensions all right I'm done in sketch mode let's go ahead and hit the checkmark and I'm out of sketcher and you get these default names for the features cs0 seus 1 CS 2 etc that's those aren't the names that I want for them I want them to correspond to the pins which I'll have in my schematic from creo schematics and usually I just number the pins one two three four five and four and eight position a contact the numbering starts over here and increases and so what I'm going to do is I'm gonna create coordinate systems on top on our sketch or coordinate systems and here's another trick all right so I'm gonna create my coordinate system and I'm gonna use the filter in the lower right-hand corner to make sure I'm only picking coordinate systems I'm gonna pick the first coordinate system and I'm not gonna offset at any distance and I'm not gonna rotate it the orientation was correct coming out of sketcher if it wasn't I could rotate about the different axes but again the important thing is for these entry ports for routing your wires and cables is that the z-axis points in the direction that the wires gonna run and now go to the properties tab and change this name to 1 and click OK and so there's my coordinate system named 1 and now I'm gonna go and pattern it right click from the mini toolbar I can choose pattern and rather than doing a dimension pattern I'll go to the drop-down list and change to a point pattern and here's a really cool thing point patterns can either use points as inputs or they can use coordinate systems that's not something that a lot of people don't know is a little trick and for the source of the coordinate systems I'm gonna pick that sketch I just created and I'll hit the checkmark and now I've got my pattern oops let me go and expand it over here and now it's just a matter of renaming them to what the pins are supposed to be so let me change that real quick and I'm just gonna put in a quick cut over here so you're not bored fade out fade in okay so ivory numbered renamed my coordinate system so they match up with the correct pin names and I'll show you that I can also use a pattern based off of this remember when I create the axis going along the z direction for that entry coordinate system I can do the same thing again I can choose to create an axis and I'll use the filter in the lower right hand corner the screen change this to coordinate system axis to grab the z axis and I'll just leave the default name click OK and with the axis still selected I'll right mouse click and choose pattern and it'll automatically reference pattern on top of the pattern of the coordinate system so again another trick for creating the denims that you need for routing alright let's hide all that other stuff another thing that I usually do for connectors is use a coordinate system for locating them in the model and you just have to make sure however you define the orient of the coordinate system in this model in this case here matching in the plug I'm gonna want to make sure that the connector that it fits into has the same orientation so let's create another coordinate system oops coordinate system and I'm gonna locate at the intersection of the datum plane called front I'll hold down the control key and select this surface and then this surface over here and for the orientation and let's go and have let me choose this surface I'm gonna have that be the z direction and let's have the bottom surface I'll define Y but I'm gonna flip it and again however you orient this in here just make sure that the orientation match is up in the model that it's going to fit into when you're locating it I'm gonna call this coordinate system locate and now I'll create a component interface and I have the coordinate system selected so it automatically selects it in here and I like to change the name of my component interfaces I'm gonna call this place because I'm gonna use it for placing the component you don't have to change the type of component interface but I know that I'm only going to use this for locating it in a model I'm never going to assemble something to this particular component so I can change it to placing again just want to make sure it has my coordinate system and hit the check mark and so that way now I have everything that I need for routing wires and cables and so again just to recap I imported my geometry I created coordinate systems for routing my wires I also created axes to support that and made a coordinate system for my component interface for locating it in the model I hope you enjoyed this video for more information please check out WWE chill calm if you liked this video please give it a thumbs up and also click the subscribe button to be informed when new videos are uploaded thank you very much

Channel: Creo Parametric

Views: 5,814

Keywords: ptc creo, creo ptc, creo parametric, creo parametric cabling, creo parametric tutorial, creo parametric 5.0, creo parametric 4.0, creo parametric 3.0, creo parametric design, creo parametric datums, creo parametric cable harness design, cabling in creo, creo parametric 6.0, creo parametric 4.0 tutorial, creo parametric 5.0 tutorial

Id: YBfboDDoq74

Length: 13min 39sec (819 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 31 2018