Manually mating two existing connectors in E3.cable
I am working through the demo, so please bear with this perhaps simple question. I cannot figure out how to mate two otherwise compatible connectors if they are first placed, and then I try to mate them.
If I have one connector (ex: Molex 39-01-2081) and draw connection lines from it, the mate (Molex 39-01-2080) is automatically placed. If I place 39-01-2080 and 39-01-2081 first, I cannot figure out how to mate them together.
Generally, we have a lot of design reuse. I want to make sure that I can drop a common component stored in the database (PCB, sensor, etc.) on the sheet with a common subcircuit (harness) and mate the two as required.
For example, I want to select A1 and drag/mate it onto the harness on the right side of the screen. How can this be accomplished?
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Official comment
Hi Kevin,
It would be a good exercise to take a look at that project and the method live.
One of the AEs will touch base with you soon.
Thanks
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What is the message you are getting when you try to connect (look at the status bar on the bottom of your window)?
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- First image: Drag block, do not overlap connectors. No message is shown, drop is allowed, but no mate is made (connectors are just next to each other on the sheet).
- Second image: Drag block, overlap connectors. "Invalid position for invalid block connector symbol!". Drag and drop won't happen and mate is not made.
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Try setting your alternative grid to a smaller value and push the <CTRL> key when (slowly) moving the block towards J11 (probably your connector symbol on the block is a bit off-grid or not on your working grid).
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Thanks, Paul. The grid settings allowed me to drag the block around more precisely, but the connection is still not made. Is there another setting to allow this type of connection? I've searched the help contents to no avail.
In the example below, the top harness was created by placing the block and the connector 39-01-2081 on the right. A multi-connection was made between P6 and P8. The connector A2.P6 (39-01-2080) was auto generated and the connection was made.
In the bottom example, P6, J13 and P9 were pre-placed. A2/P6 was dragged towards J13 using the <CTRL> key for fine placement. The pending connection icon never showed up. I placed P6 and J13 in the exact same spot relative to each other, but no connection was made.
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E3 will not allow a connection between two connector pins if the signal names are different. Make sure the signal flow interrupted checkbox is checked on both connectors. If that doesn't work, delete the signal names from one of the connectors, making them <no entry>.
There are some settings that have to do with system-generated signal names and signal flow which may help avoid you avoid this problem in the future.
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I can "plug in" two connectors on the edge of blocks, but a lone connector still won't "plug in" to an existing block.
Below, A7 is a duplicate of A4. J16 and J17 have all pins set to <no entry>. When I drag A6 along the x axis, the status bar shows a yellow banner with "plug in!" at some point. Doing the same with J17 shows no change in the status bar.
Thanks for all the quick responses. This may seem trivial, but it's a major consideration before purchasing the software. If a stored subcircuit cannot readily be connected to another circuit or block, then the value of E3 diminishes greatly for us.
[1] Initial state
[2] Slide A6 towards A4, "plug in!" status shown.
[3] Mated with signals passed from P10 to J16.
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If you are evaluating E3, then you must be in contact with a Zuken. They would be able to investigate the problem when you send them the project.
It is hard to find out the real reason behind this problem without the E3 project, because there could be a lot of reasons.
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All I can tell you is that there is no reason you shouldn't be able to "plug" J17 into P12 of block. Try allowing signal flow to J17 to unchecking the "signal flow" checkbox for each pin.
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