Adding "Additional Parts" in Harness Builder no longer lets me select any part

Benjamin Smith

• April 03, 2017 18:27

I used to be able to select a connector in Formboard, open the Harness Builder window, select Additional Parts, and select from the entire library of parts, sorted by ComponentGroup.  The latest Harness Builder update, 2017.0.0.0, seems to have removed this functionality, and now I can only add Additional Parts when the ComponentGroup matches.

 

One of the primary use cases for Additional Parts was adding heat shrink to connectors with solder cup contacts.  I've currently got my connectors sorted by ComponentGroup, i.e. Combo DSUB, and heat shrink sorted by ComponentGroup, i.e. M23053/5.  I would previously select a connector, go into Additional Parts, scroll to the M23053/5 section, and select the appropriate size heat shrink.  I can no longer do this.

 

Is there a better way to add heat shrink to solder connectors as a phantom/non visible/BOM only part in Harness Builder?  Adding the ComponentGroup of every single connector series I might want to add heat shrink to my heat shrink part records seems silly.  

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  Jonathan Dermont

  • April 03, 2017 18:35

  Hi Benjamin,

  I believe they changed the component group so that it does have to match, but you can have multiple component groups on a part and it will find the different ones. 

  The logic behind it is pretty great, so that you're not sorting through thousands of parts.

  You could possibly create heat shrink like the seals on pins to auto select the heat shrink. This would be automatic and faster, but you would need a few scenarios based upon what kind of wire you are using.

  Regards,

  Jon D

   

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  Benjamin Smith

  • April 03, 2017 18:40

  Hi Jon,

   

  I think the cavity seal approach is what I originally wanted before I went down the Additional Parts route a year ago.  I'll look into this, thanks.

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  Benjamin Smith

  • April 03, 2017 19:09

  Having the forward slash be the operator in the Connector Cavity Seal attribute seems not support the entire gamut of milspec part numbers.  All our heat shrink part numbers have a forward slash in them, i.e. M23053/5-201-C, which doesn't work when my Connector Cavity Seal attribute format ends up being M22759:8:M23053/5-206-0.  

   

  Is there any kind of quote operator I can put around the M23053/11-206-C so that Harness Builder doesn't think I'm giving a reeled / loose part number?  Ideally so that my syntax ends up being M22759:8:"M23053/5-206-0", where the " " is replaced with a different operator?

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  Jonathan Dermont

  • April 03, 2017 19:16

  Hi Ben,

  I don't believe that there is any type of special characters for this, as it was probably not anticipated for part numbers to have a / in them. 

  I would log this issue on the ZGS portal that way the software guys can have a look into your situation.

  Regards,
  Jon D

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  Benjamin Smith

  • April 03, 2017 19:25

  Thanks for your quick responses Jon.  I've logged a ZGS ticket for this.

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