Help with Assembly Drawing

I have attached a zip file containing two documents.

The first one is called ND150. This shows (in a word document) pictures of what I am drawing in SolidWorks and also an explanation of what my problem is that I need help with.

The second file is called AutoCad Dwg - For Reference Only. This is just a 2D Autocad reference file so you can see what I am trying to redraw in Solidworks.

This problem has stumped me for a few days now and am getting down to the wire, so I need to show something! So if somebody can please help me with this before I pull my hair out, I would greatly appreciate it!

which part do you need help with? are you drawing the entire assembly, box/lid/gas strut, patch panel, connectors wires and so on? The method for attacking each part may/will be different.

What I need help with is drawing the cable coming up from the conduit and terminating through the elbow. The assembly drawing that I have attached shows the box/lid/strut are already drawn (the vendor gave us their SW files). I have drawn the loadbreak junction, elbows, and deadend receptacles, conduit, and ground rod in SW.

I created an assembly drawing and pulled in all the parts that I needed and created the mates, etc. So what I need to draw now is the cable which comes up from the conduit, loops around in the cabinet (as shown in the AutoCAD reference file) and terminates through the elbow.

Do you have the Router add-in loaded? There is a cable routing setup that will allow you to pick start/end points(or several points in between) and create a route for a cable. I wont have SW in front of me again until thursday. This router will have predefined cables based on gauge, insulation color, number of conductors and so on. If you have loaded this you can go to the tools>add-ins menu. Depending on which version of solidworks you have it may/may not be there.

If you dont have it, this can be done easily with a 3d sketch, and a 2d sketch profile of your cable with a sweep operation.

here is a screen shot of the electrical routing menu.

I suggest you go to the routing quick tips, click on electrical and follow the On the fly help.

This is the message the I get when I try to install the routing add-in:

Could not obtain a license for SolidWorks Routing.

License server does not support this feature. (-18,147,0)

which version of solidworks are you running. Premium?

It may be that you dont have routing. No problem you can still create the cable using a 3d sketch and sweep operation. Do you know how to do this?

I am using Premium, so based on what I read, we should have this add-on somewhere. I will get with our ICS Dept to find out if they have installed this option. Since I am pretty new to SW, I have not done a 3d sketch yet, although I was just starting to do this when I decided to put this post on this site to see if there was another way of doing what I had originally posted! So to answer your question; no, I have never done a 3D sketch yet.

Solidworks has some nice features to help you layout a 3dsketch. I recommend that you use all straight lines then bend/fillet their intersections. At least to get the concept down.

First you need to start by creating a new part(unless you want your cable to be part of the connector). You want to have the start and end of your path laid out. The start will be the base of your connector, the end will be in your conduit. I just setup two "discs" in space to show you the idea.

When i start my 3dsketch(drop down under the Sketch button) i like to use the Convert Entities button. When you are working in assemblies you have the option to break the references between components. Basically this lets you copy geometry(for instance a bolt pattern or shape of a part) into a new part but not have it reference the other part. If you keep references you have to be aware components in your part that arent references can/are free to move depending on how they are constrained, while the referenced parts will "stick" to their counterparts. So say you draw a flange but Convert the bolt pattern from another. When you move the flange, the holes will stay put.

You can now snap to the converted circle centerpoints for your path. You will notice when you start to draw a line that an icon will appear next to your cursor. It will let you know what plane you are drawing in. This is very helpful to you when trying to lay out paths in 3d because it adds a "constraint" of sorts to keep that line planer while sketching. The TAB key lets you cycle through the 3 planes and you can do this at any point during the sketch. So say you start drawing in the XY plane, but you want your second line segment to be in the XZ plane, just hit TAB. What i like to do is draw a line straight out of both parts first. This will help you out a little when laying things out. Of course you can add relations to these as well such as Along Z,Y, or X to help pull things into line.

You can see two of the lines are black while the other 3 are blue. The black ones are defined as being along an axis. The only need a length to fully define them. You need to fully define your sketches!!! there are cases when an under defined sketch is beneficial or when driven dimensions are needed but in this case it will help you to fully define your sketches.

Apply a Sketch Fillet to each of the corners. Keep in mind the radius of your filled and the diameter of your wire. The software doesnt like(and wont allow) a small radius that will produce bad geometry.

Now you can end the sketch and create the object you want to sweep the path with.

Now of course this doesnt need to be done with all perpendicular straight sections but its the easiest to visualize. At the very least I would make straight sections coming out of your connector and going into the conduit. If you want to use a spline then you can do that, just make sure it is tangent to these straight sections.

Very nice! I will give this a shot this afternoon or tomorrow morning and let you know how it goes. But your illustration makes it look like a pretty simple task to do!

Dealing with straight lines that are all perpendicular is fairy simple to do when setting up sweep paths. When you start dealing with complex curves in 3d, it gets complex:) Let me know how that goes for you and then ill show you another method for a more realistic cable path. When laying out solid core cables inside panels or cabinets, this method works great because the cables are plyable and usually in a raceway for long runs. For a more natural lay a spline will end up being the best option, but its important you understand the 3d sketch environment and Add Relations before venturing into this.