Cables Workbench

Introduction

The Cables Workbench is a toolset for modeling electrical installations in architectural design projects. It is made to help run cables inside buildings or other objects and to build models of cables with the possibility of making single wire connections. It is an external workbench.

This toolset can be used to create electrical boxes or other ready to use electrical elements (the element list will hopefully be expanded in the future). These elements can be connected with fully parametric cables of different profiles, number of wires and thicknesses. There are a few predefined cable profiles here, but there is also possibility to create custom non standard profiles with a simple csv file.

Models built with this workbench allow easy repositioning of elements without breaking connections. Cables can adjust their shape to new positions. However, this feature is not perfect yet.

The workbench aims to be compatible with BIM Workbench (solid objects created here should have the same base attributes and properties as other BIM objects: materials, IFC type and IFC attributes etc.), but it can be used for purposes other than architectural designs. Since version 0.3.0 the workbench became also more suitable for modeling connections between PCBs, inside machines etc. It allows to build custom libraries of connectors, boxes and electrical devices (any help in creating, for example, a set of ready-made connectors is very welcome).

Example of wall mounted boxes and cable
Animated version here

Example of three-core flat cable:
Multimaterial cable shape and its base wire, profile and subwires.

Left: example of distribution box with MCBs.
Right: example of a cable terminated with connectors

Installation

This workbench can be installed from Addon Manager. See also Installing more workbenches for manual installation.

Tools

Cable tools are divided into few groups depending on their purpose.

Wire creation and manipulation tools

• WireFlex: Creates a new WireFlex object stretched between two or more selected vertices/objects.

• Add Vertex: Creates an additional vertex on a selected WireFlex edge.

• Delete Vertex: Deletes a selected WireFlex vertex.

• Attach Vertex: Attaches selected WireFlex vertex to external vertex|object.

• Remove Vertex Attachment: Removes selected WireFlex vertex attachment from external vertex|object.

• Attach Wire to Terminal: Makes attachment of wire end to the Terminal (introduced in version 0.3.0).

• Detach Wire from Terminal: Removes wire end attachment from the Terminal (introduced in version 0.3.0).

• CompoundPath: Creates a new CompoundPath object based on selected objects (introduced in version 0.2.0). It creates a wire object based on a group of other wire objects. Its topological shape is a compound of wire shapes or a single wire shape.

• Cables Edit: Edits the active WireFlex object (introduced in version 0.2.0).

Tools for making cables and other ready-made elements

• Cable Profile: Adds a new cable profile to the current document.

• Cable: Adds a new cable based on selected wire and profile.

• CableConduit: Adds a new cable conduit based on selected wire (introduced in version 0.2.0).

• Cable Box: Adds a new parametric cable box.

• Cable Connector: Adds a new parametric universal cable connector.

• Cable Light Point: Adds a new parametric universal light point for cable.

• Cable Electrical Device: Adds a new electrical device (introduced in version 0.3.0).

• Cable Materials: Adds a default set of multimaterials to the current document.

Dependent objects

These objects cannot be created directly. They are designed to coexist with Cable Box, Cable Connector, Cable Light Point or Electrical Device objects depending on their configuration.

• Cable Terminal: Contains a parametric cable terminal object (introduced in version 0.3.0).

• SuppLines: Contains a SuppLines object (introduced in version 0.3.0).

Support tools

These tools are mainly used to organize and simplify the attachments of other objects. They can also be used successfully with other workbenches.

• Support Point: Adds a universal support point.

• Support Line: Adds a universal support line.

• Attach in Place: Makes an attachment without changing global placement of an object (introduced in version 0.3.0).

• Deactivate Attachment: Deactivates attachment of selected objects (introduced in version 0.3.0).

External tools

• Toggle grid: Changes the visibility of the grid.

Notes

This workbench is currently at the alpha stage. You can expect some bugs which can make your model broken. Some properties of models can change in the future and break models created with current version. Wiki pages related to this workbench can also be significantly changed in the future. Any comments and new ideas are very welcome. Please put your comments and reports through the channels specified in References.

Basic Workflow Description

1. Create endpoints for cables like: Cable Box or Cable Light Point and arrange them in a 3D space.
2. Create base wires connecting created endpoints with WireFlex and arrange them in a 3D space with the help of Support Lines or Support Points.
3. Create Cable Profiles suitable for the project.
4. Create Cables based on existing base wires and profiles.
5. Color the cables with the predefined or customized Cable Materials.
6. Finally (and optionally) connect chosen single cable wires using Cable Connectors.

Tutorials and Examples

Example FreeCAD documents with cables:

• Examples shipped with the source code

Example animated images:

• Simple workflow example
• WireFlex moving examples
• Cable Box example usage
• Cable Connector example usage

Tutorials:

• Cables Create Custom Connector

Video tutorials/examples:

• Check out the new Cable Workbench in FreeCAD 1.1.0!
• Cable response following assembly

References

• Author:
  • SargoDevel

• Source code on GitHub: https://github.com/sargo-devel/Cables
• FreeCAD Forum: https://forum.freecad.org/viewtopic.php?t=94090
• Report bugs: Please report bugs here