Method and apparatus for producing a three dimensional representation of a wire harness into a two dimensional presentation
First Claim
1. A computer implemented method for producing a two dimensional computer representation of a three dimensional wire harness which can be used to assemble the wire harness in two dimensions, the two dimensional computer representation being produced in an unfolding plane, the method comprising the computer implemented steps of:
- generating a three dimensional computer representation of the three dimensional wire harness;
modeling at least one portion of the three dimensional computer representation as a plurality of computer modeled segments, the plurality of computer modeled segments including at least one computer modeled segment that lies outside the unfolding plane; and
moving the at least one computer modeled segment that lies outside the unfolding plane into the unfolding plane to produce the two dimensional computer representation of the wire harness, including the computer implemented step of automatically processing the at least one computer modeled segment that lies outside the unfolding plane by rotation relative to an adjoining computer modeled segment.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A computer implemented method for designing a form board for manufacturing a wire harness is used to convert a three dimensional computer representation of a wire harness into a two dimensional model of the harness. The method includes modelling the harness as a plurality of segments and iteratively moving each segment into an unfolding plane. A computer generated representation of the two dimensional model is provided.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. A computer implemented method for producing a two dimensional computer representation of a three dimensional wire harness which can be used to assemble the wire harness in two dimensions, the two dimensional computer representation being produced in an unfolding plane, the method comprising the computer implemented steps of:
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generating a three dimensional computer representation of the three dimensional wire harness; modeling at least one portion of the three dimensional computer representation as a plurality of computer modeled segments, the plurality of computer modeled segments including at least one computer modeled segment that lies outside the unfolding plane; and moving the at least one computer modeled segment that lies outside the unfolding plane into the unfolding plane to produce the two dimensional computer representation of the wire harness, including the computer implemented step of automatically processing the at least one computer modeled segment that lies outside the unfolding plane by rotation relative to an adjoining computer modeled segment. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A computer implemented method for producing a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional wire harness having wires and/or bundles of wires for electrically coupling components within a product, the method comprising the computer implemented steps of:
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generating a three dimensional computer representation of the three dimensional wire harness; establishing a two dimensional unfolding plane; modeling at least a portion of the wire harness as a plurality of computer modeled, segments that includes at least one computer modeled segment that lies outside the unfolding plane; moving the at least one computer modeled segment that lies outside the unfolding plane into the unfolding plane, the moving step comprising the computer implemented steps of; automatically processing the at least one computer modeled segment that lies outside the unfolding plane by rotation in a first direction relative to an adjoining computer modeled segment that lies in the unfolding plane, the at least one computer modeled segment and the adjoining computer modeled segment having an angle therebetween, wherein the angle remains the same before and after the rotation in the first direction; determining whether an amount of twist introduced into the adjoining modeled segment exceeds a predetermined twist limit parameter that limits the amount of twist that may be introduced into a portion of the wire harness; and when the amount of twist introduced into the adjoining computer modeled segment exceeds the twist limit parameter, re-rotating the at least one computer modeled segment into the unfolding plane in a direction different from the first direction.
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17. A computer implemented method for converting a three dimensional computer model of a wire harness into a two dimensional computer model of the wire harness for use in assembling the wire harness, the two dimensional computer model lying in a two dimensional unfolding plane, wherein the wire harness comprises a plurality of wires which interconnect components of a product, the wire harness having single wires and/or bundles of wires which have branches that meet at junctions, a branch being a part of the wire harness which has both ends terminated by either a junction or a connector for connection to one of the components, the method comprising the computer implemented steps of:
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(a) modeling a portion of a branch as a plurality of computer modeled segments represented by computer data, the portion including part or all of the branch; (b) unfolding the portion of the branch by transforming the computer data representing each of the plurality of computer modeled segments into a transformed representation so that the transformed representation of each computer modeled segment lies in the unfolding plane to result in a computer modeled unfolded portion; (c) automatically checking a predetermined constraint to determine whether the computer modeled unfolded portion violates the predetermined constraint; (d) when the computer modeled unfolded portion violates the predetermined constraint, adjusting the computer data until the computer modeled unfolded portion no longer violates the predetermined constraint; and (e) repeating steps (a)-(d) on each portion of each branch until the transformed representations of all the branch portions lie in the unfolding plane. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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Specification