Interconnect cable vs bulk wire - wire end behavior | Voters

Interconnect cable vs bulk wire - wire end behavior

Mark Cohea

Is there a way to lock the start and end terminals for Interconnect cables, since they are pre-connectorized patch cables, and lock those terminals so they don't change when we put them on a schematic drawing? (as opposed to bulk wire, where we do not populate that information)

6 days ago

Kevin Frye

What do you mean by "lock those terminals"? Can you provide a more detailed version of your workflow?

Mark Cohea

If we place a bulk wire on a schematic and connect it to any I/O on a component, the cable will inherit a line end based on the connector on the component I/O list. So, a shielded 18/2 cable connects to an RJ45 jack on a device and the line end will show an RJ45. If it connects to a Phoenix connector port, it will show a phoenix connector line end. For the most part that works for bulk, unterminated cable. However, if we have a patch cord - say a USB A to USB B cable - that cable will always have a USB A end and a USB B end. It's pre-terminated. BUT, if we accidentally connect that patch cable to a different I/O on the schematic - say the HDMI input of a device - it will inherit a new cable end. It should stay USB A and B, not matter what it is connected to. This would be a good check on a drawing if we see a miss-match connection. However, this doesn't happen because these patch cables inherit the connector from the component.

Jeff Colt

Mark Cohea
You have 2 options for this. 
Option 1, Use the 'Shape Data' window to change the "Track Connections" field to "False" for your interconnects. This would allow you to set your line ends, and then they will not change if/when they are connected to a different type of terminal. 
Option 2, you could create a copy of your bulk wire shape, make the adjustments to the shape data for that shape, and then assign that shape to all of your interconnects. 
Overall, I would suggest Option 2 as the more efficient long-term solution to this request. Option 1 would require manual adjustment for every interconnect on every drawing every time.