Creating Cable Fanouts in SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematic

Cable fanouts are an essential aspect of electrical design, ensuring that wires are correctly connected and properly organized within a schematic. Setting up a fanout correctly improves clarity and prevents design errors.

Schematic design tools like SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematic have dedicated workflows to easily create cable fanouts and accurately display your electrical designs. This guide will walk you through the process of creating cable fanouts, fixing the wire cabling order, and associating cable cores efficiently.

Summary of Creating a Cable Fanout

1. Set up the wires properly in the schematic: Create a cable fanout with the individual wires coming off the main cable branch.
2. Adjust the wire cabling order: In the main branch properties, adjust the wire orders so the origin and destination match your design.
3. Associate cable cores to wires: Assign specific cable cores to the wires drawn in the schematic

1. Setting Up the Wires

Before creating a cable fanout, you need to arrange the wires properly. Depending on the number of cable cores or wires fanning out of the connection, ensure that all wires originate from a single point on the connection. A cable setup like this gives a clear representation of how the wires will branch out from the main connection point.

2. Fixing the Wire Cabling Order

Once the wires are positioned correctly, the next step is to adjust the wire cabling order:

1. Right-click the main wire before it branches out.
2. Select Wire Cabling Order from the context menu.
3. Verify that the origin and destination components of each wire match the schematic. If any origins or destinations need correction, drag and drop the correct component from the top right section into the connections list below.
4. Click OK once the wire cabling order is corrected.

Dragging and dropping the connection on to the wire

In this example, the destination looks good for the wires; we just have to change the origin of the other 3 wires. We can change the wire origin from the original values to our X3 connection point. Now, all wires will have the proper origin and destination assignments, ensuring consistency across the schematic.

3. Associating Cable Cores to Wires

The final step is to assign specific cable cores to the fanout wires. Follow these steps:

1. Highlight all the wires from your Schematic drawing.
2. Right-click and select Associate Cable Cores.
3. Click on the Cabling Order column in the bottom section to sort the wires by cable order.
4. Open the drop-down menu for cables in your project.
5. Highlight all cable cores and all wires.
6. Click Associate Cable Cores, then click OK.
   

   Associating wires to cable cores

Indicators of Successful Cable Fanouts

By following the steps above, you should be able to quickly create cable fanouts in SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematic. If done correctly, you should see the following:

• Each wire core is assigned to a corresponding cable mark in the list.
• The parent cable name is displayed with all associated cores for the fanout.
  

  An example of a properly created cable fanout

Properly configuring cable fanouts in SOLIDWORKS Electrical 2D helps maintain design accuracy and ensures correct wiring in your electrical projects. By following these steps, you can easily organize your schematics, prevent connection errors, and keep your documentation precise. With this method, your cable management in SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematic will be cleaner, more organized, and easier to follow in future revisions.

Looking to learn more about electrical schematic diagrams? Read our guide here.