Have you seen the sugar monster?

Halloween is a strange and wonderful time for everybody. Isn’t it priceless to see the effort kids (and grown-ups) put into dressing up and walking around begging for treats? If scary is what you’re going for, try getting in between the little ones and their candy, or worse, sticking around after they’ve had too much! No matter how you look at it, kids, candy and Halloween together is like a great horror movie – so much fun, because it’s so scary!

The double-edged sword of candy and Halloween is a long discussion. Every Halloween my doorbell rings, I hear the words ‘trick or treat’ and candy leaves my house. But no success yet in tricking anyone to leave the candy for me.

I seem to have better luck surprising people with design tricks in E3.series, so let’s talk about that instead. There are some treats in store for you as well but let’s start with the tricks.

Losing yourself in 256 levels of excitement…

The age-old drafting function ‘layer’ is widely used in design to manage the information on a drawing. Needless to say, it is easy to forget it exists in E3.series with all the other automation and intelligence making life easy. Layers are known as Levels in E3.series and they are, as you might guess, a much more intelligent version than the ghost of the old design tools. The trick here is to use the levels to help you standardize and reduce the effort to create a perfect drawing.

Levels in E3.series can control multiple items all at once or you can choose to control them individually. Easily show/hide elements of your choice on any of the 256 levels available in the project. The standard library uses levels as a basic guide for standardization, making the library a perfect place to assign specific levels to the design elements controlled by project-specific configuration.

Each level is sub-divided into:

• Symbol
• Symbol Graphics
• Symbol Text
• Empty Text – Attributes or Text Types that have no value hidden by default
• Graphic
• Text
• Connections

Users can quickly change project configurations by using Read and Write level configuration options. The ability to export, standardize and automate improves time savings and productivity. If you haven’t tried levels before or simply forgot about them it is time to give it a shot and level up your designs.

The curious case of connector information

The information displayed in a drawing can vary from one project to the next. You shouldn’t have to go change the library every time or have to maintain separate libraries to adhere to standards. In E3.series the library can truly be a single source of truth – the question is ‘how’ isn’t it?

I am sure you can relate to having to display or find one particular detail of a connector at the worst time possible. Invariably, caught wishing you had saved it the last time you had to go look it up in a datasheet. Levels, although great, are not a solution for the dynamic nature of information attached to connectors and their pins. The challenge; do you make it visible all the time in the drawing? Would it be better for this information to show up on the drawing as and when you need it?

Connectors have their own attribute visibility manager in the settings for any project in E3.series. The visibility of the attribute text is managed for the first, last and the middle pins. If you think about attributes like a part number or device tag, you’ll likely want to show the part number below on the last pin, and the device tag only above a set of connector pins rather than on each pin.

The idea here is to not have to create custom symbols for pins but rather use generic symbols. A novel solution like this enables configuring your project as the requirements evolve. I use about eight pin symbols to represent thousands of connectors and these settings are a blessing. I don’t even want to think about managing all those connectors without this feature.

What is reality, if not shared perception?

We have dozens of such tips, tricks and sage advice available on this blog and in the Zuken community. If you haven’t signed up for the community you are missing the protection of being in the inner circle and validating your reality – https://community.zukenusa.com

Head to the island to be safe, the zombies are coming…

Zuken Innovation World Americas 2019 is being held in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina from April 15-17, 2019. It is a wonderful place to learn more about the solutions directly from the experts. You’ll enjoy many networking opportunities with your colleagues amidst the soothing sound of the waves caressing the soft sandy beach.

The presentations by customers and industry experts are the highlight of the agenda. If you haven’t submitted your abstract, now is the time – the call for papers closes November 2, 2018. The information and topics are always going to be a treat but there are additional perks to presenting and the real TREAT is that approved speakers attend FREE!

Enjoy these tricks and treats on your next design project, and if you find yourself with any leftover Halloween candy, I hope you’ll send it my way!

The post E3.series Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts appeared first on English.

Shared sheets are real spaces created to scale that fit in a standard drawing border and help you design large systems in separate spaces while keeping them connected. The master drawing/sheet can be a whole system with different drawings/sheets becoming the sub-systems. The shared sheets are important in many applications where the size of the system is bigger than any one drawing can hold, but at the same time the scale and topology of the entire drawing is best maintained together.

The basic information for a shared sheet is the same for formboard and panel with the change being the type/format of the drawing/sheet. The settings for panel and formboard for the shared region are managed separately.

E3.series with the shared sheet option for panels and formboard/nailboard makes it easy to design a large system and we will be looking at the quick steps needed to get started.

The post Tech Tip: How to Set-up Shared Sheets or Drawings in E3.series appeared first on English.

With Zuken’s E³.series containing a host of products including E³.schematic, E³.fluid, E³.cable, E³.formboard, E³.panel, E³.RoutingBridge, E³.PLCBridge and E³.Wiring Diagram Generator, you may feel overwhelmed on your  first approach. Well, you’ve got nothing to worry about! I’ll walk you through and provide you with a guide to figuring it all out.

Complexity of the design process

The growing number of E³.series applications and options reflects the growing complexity of the electrical engineering process itself. The engineering process has become increasingly concurrent: activities that once were performed one after another can now be carried out simultaneously. In a certain sense, with its object-oriented architecture that enables parallel development of schematic planning, fluid cable planning, and even cabinet and harness layout, E³.series was one of the first engineering software products to fully embrace the trend of concurrent engineering.

But the concurrent approach obviously does not stop at the doors of the electrical engineering department: With the growing electronic content of today’s products comes the need to exchange information with mechanical engineering to explore such things as the best position of control units, establish wire lengths, position cable channels and calculate available diameters for wire bundles. These capabilities are provided by E³.series extensions such as E³.RoutingBridge or E³.PLCBridge. The first enables exchange of schematic and connection information with the MCAD world, and the latter supports parallel development of electrical, fluid engineering and PLC software. And finally, with applications like E³.ExportToKomax, E³.reports and E³.panel+ you can generate comprehensive outputs for NC machining, wire cutting and labelling and shop-floor instructions.

Managing design data

But what about PLM – where does that come in? The answer is simple – with the increase in productivity enabled through applications like E³.series and the growing number of projects that are carried out in parallel, comes a third dimension: The need to track all design versions, revisions and modifications and make them available to your peers in mechanical engineering, production and assembly. These days this sort of information is frequently referred to as “constituents” in the product development process. What once could be communicated by word of mouth from one desk to another, can no longer be maintained without elaborate data revision and routing mechanisms that make sure everybody’s work is based on up-to-date information. If, in addition, your company is pursuing strategies such as reusing designs and modules or has geographically distributed engineering locations, reliable methods for tracking and documentation of versions, revisions and changes become vital.

Enter Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)

This is where PLM vendors typically enter the stage with the confident claim to manage everything – the cost of which would quickly be recovered in huge savings through the reduction of errors, acceleration of the time-to-market cycle etc. But be careful, the term “everything” should be examined with great care! Managing “everything” in electrical or electronic engineering often describes “unintelligent”, digitized information that documents your design as it was approved for production – in other words, a simple PDF. “Everything” does not automatically imply that you can query your system to find out in what project component XYZ is used, or what other projects need to be updated if you make a change in a design that has been reused several times in different projects.

That’s why Zuken chose to develop its own domain data management solutions based on the DS-2 platform, such as DS-E3. While our solutions don’t claim to manage EVERYTHING, they do claim to provide detailed, electrically valid query, analysis and configuration management capabilities for the E³.series electrical and fluid engineering environment, and for the CR-8000 multi-board PCB engineering environment.

What level tool are you looking for?

So next time you are trying to navigate the admittedly comprehensive list of E³.series offerings, you could use this handy reference guide as a starting point:

Further reading

For a full look at everything that’s available in E³.series, just head to the Zuken website, where you can download a comprehensive overview brochure of the main applications and extensions.

The post Things to Consider Before Investing in a New Electrical Engineering Tool appeared first on English.

Electrical and MCAD integration, if you’re not already doing it, has the potential to save you a good deal of time in the electrical product development process. On the most basic level you can cut out the prototype stage needed for calculating wire lengths. If you’re also working with E3.formboard, as well as the basic module (E3.cable), then you can obtain the entire harness structure.

Watch the movie below that shows a user working in E3.schematic, exporting data via the E3.3D Routing Bridge, opening up Creo, routing the wires, and then exporting back into E3.schematic to get the actual wire lengths.

For more information about the E³.3DRoutingBridge for E³.series, check out the Zuken website here

The post E3.series Integration with Creo, CATIA and NX for Wire Lengths and Harness Structures appeared first on English.

Hot on the heels of Racetech and Teepee Electrical, another autosport supplier has recently opted for E3.series to design their harnesses. I’d like to introduce HCI Systems and the man behind the operation, Mike Tickner. Why E3.series… and why now, was the basis of our chat last week.

You might have figured by now that the automotive industry one that we at Zuken can safely say we are strong in. In fact a more in-your-face company might even say dominant; but at Zuken we like to pride ourselves on facts over hype. Yes we do work with many of the big car manufacturers in Germany, India, Japan and America, not to mention leaders in coaches, fire engines and specialist off-road vehicles etc – even cranes if you want to stretch the industry that far. The autosport industry is another automotive niche that we’re becoming widely used in, spanning the OEMs and suppliers such as harness specialist HCI Systems.

What made you choose E3.series?

Mike:  I’d been looking for a software package that can do everything we needed for years, and I wanted it to be as professional as possible. So I got in touch with High Peak Systems (UK E3.series distributor).

What really made me buy? This is why…

• The database for the autosport industry is far bigger than any other in the market.
• The package is flexible, I can start where I want.
  Different customers provide different levels and types of information at the beginning of a project. Some know the components they are using, others don’t. While another company may know the layout of the car, another might not.  The way E3.series is structured with its database means that I can start the project either at the schematic phase or at the formboard.

• The high level of software support.
  David and Tim at High Peak Systems have been willing to work with me flexibly to offer excellent support in making E3.series work for us. This was an important factor for me.

What next with E3.series?

Mike: Last week I started the first half of my initial training on E3.schematic and E3.cable, then in a couple of week’s I’m returning for the second half that looks at E3.formboad and the database. I’ve got two projects in mind to be my first for E3.series: updating the harness design for the Vuhl lightweight supercar (check out the website here), so that we can easily track ongoing changes and bills of materials. Then we’re also working on a high performance electric car – but I can’t say the name I’m afraid.

I know that the design is going to take longer in the beginning, but over the entire product development and fabrication process we’re going to save time. The complete bill of materials, and the repeatable formboard information will speed up the manufacturing bit.

Tell me more about HCI Systems, Mike

Mike: I started the company back in September 2012, which means that we’ve been going for nearly four years. My background is that I began my career as an apprentice helicopter avionics technician, then quickly moved into Formula One as an electronics technician and track support etc. From there I went into defence and wiring projects working on the likes of the BAE Terrier Vehicles and Royal Naval ship projects. With a passion for the autosport industry, I’d always thought there had to be a better way of doing the electrical design. Although, I should add, we are not just restricted to autosport, there are many similarities of harness design with the defence industry, so we do harness design and manufacturing for companies in that sector too.

Our current customers are operating in FIA Formula 1, FIA World Rallycross with teams typically from the UK and Sweden. But also include companies like Vuhl in Mexico.

Case study presentation at Zuken Innovation World UK event on 5th October

At the end of our call, never one to miss an opportunity to convince a customer to share their experience with the community, I asked HCI if they would be willing to share their experience of getting to grips with E3.series, and designing the harnesses for these two projects, at our annual Zuken Innovation World UK conference on 5th October – Mike agreed.

The post Another Automotive Supplier Chooses E3.series for Harness Design and Manufacture appeared first on English.