Creating a Manufacturing Drawing

Now reading version 19.0. For the latest, read: Creating a Manufacturing Drawing for version 24
 

Once the wiring diagram and layout drawing are complete, read-only copies of their contents can be placed into the manufacturing drawing and annotated as required. A manufacturing drawing for a harness design is being created in the Draftsman editor.

For overview information about Draftsman, refer to the Streamlining Board Design Documentation with Draftsman page.

Setting Up a Manufacturing Drawing Document

To create a manufacturing drawing for the harness design, a new Draftsman document (*.HarDwf) should be added to the harness project. To do this, right-click the project entry in the Projects panel and then select Add New to Project » Draftsman Document from the context menu (or use the File » New » Draftsman Document command from the main menus). In the New Document dialog that opens, select an available manufacturing drawing template as required and ensure that a correct Project and harness layout drawing Document is selected.

The New Document dialog
The New Document dialog

To learn more about creating manufacturing drawing templates, refer to the Creating Harness Template Documents page.

Options of a manufacturing drawing document can be configured in the Properties panel in its Document Options mode, which is active when no object is selected in the document's design space. Refer to the Setting Up a Draftsman Document page to learn more.

  • Once the manufacturing drawing document has been created, any changes made in the wiring diagram or layout drawing can be imported into the manufacturing drawing using the Tools » Import Changes From <LayoutDrawing.LdrDoc> command from the main menus or the right-click menu of the design space. Note that despite the description in the menu command, this will import changes from both the wiring diagram and the layout drawing.
  • Default properties of Manufacturing Drawing objects can be configured on the Draftsman – Defaults page of the Preferences dialog. These properties will be applied when placing subsequent objects.

Working with Views

In a manufacturing drawing document, you can place read-only views of the harness wiring diagram and harness layout drawing included in this project.

Wiring Diagram View

A Wiring Diagram View is an automated graphic composite of the active harness design project's wiring diagram.

A Wiring Diagram View
A Wiring Diagram View

A Wiring Diagram View is placed in a manufacturing drawing document by clicking the  button in the Active Bar or selecting the Place » Wiring Diagram View command from the main menus.

The properties of a placed Wiring Diagram View can be configured in the Properties panel when the view is selected in the design space.

The Properties  panel in Wiring Diagram View mode
The Properties panel in Wiring Diagram View mode

When Auto Size is enabled, the Wiring Diagram View automatically adjusts its size to remove empty space at the borders. Select the Justification by clicking on an arrow that corresponds with the desired justification or the circle to center. The chosen option for Justification defines the point relative to which the position of the view is changed if its size is updated.

Layout Drawing View

A Layout Drawing View is an automated graphic composite of the active harness design project's layout drawing.

A Layout Drawing View
A Layout Drawing View

A Layout Drawing View is placed in a manufacturing drawing document by clicking the  button in the Active Bar or selecting the Place » Layout Drawing View command from the main menus.

The properties of a placed Layout Drawing View can be configured in the Properties panel when the view is selected in the design space.

The Properties panel in Layout Drawing View mode
The Properties panel in Layout Drawing View mode

When Auto Size is enabled, the Layout Drawing View automatically adjusts its size to remove empty space at the borders. Select the Justification by clicking on an arrow that corresponds with the desired justification or the circle to center. The chosen option for Justification defines the point relative to which the position of the view is changed if its size is updated.

Additional Views

To complete your manufacturing drawing, additional views can be used: Board Detail View and Component View.

The Board Detail View allows a defined area of an existing drawing that is a floating, magnified view of its detail. The Board Detail View is placed in a manufacturing drawing document by selecting an option from the  button menu on the Active Bar or via the Place » Additional Views » Board Detail View menu options. Two options are available for the Detail View area: Circle area detail view and Rectangle area detail view.

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An example circle area Board Detail View applied to a Wiring Diagram View

An example rectangle area Board Detail View applied to a Wiring Diagram View

The Component View is a drawing view of a single component from the current harness design. The Component View is placed in a manufacturing drawing document by selecting the Place » Additional Views » Component View command from the main menus.

An example Component View
An example Component View

Drawing Annotation and Dimensioning

A range of additional annotation, dimensioning and drawing tools are provided to add important information to a manufacturing drawing. These include automated note and highlighting systems, as well as tools to indicate the lengths, sizes, and angles of the object outlines, or the distance between nominated objects.

An example of an annotated Layout Drawing View
An example of an annotated Layout Drawing View

A callout associated with a connector or a connection point displays BOM item position numbers for the connector/connection point itself and its associated parts. An example is shown below.

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Refer to the following pages to learn more:

Working with Tables

A manufacturing drawing document allows a Bill Of Materials (BOM), Wiring List, Connection Table, and a generic Table to be placed on the drawing. The tabular data is directly derived from the project files and provides a simple, visual way to convey crucial information for the harness manufacturing processes.

When any table object is copied from the manufacturing drawing document, its content can be pasted into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
Refer to the Bill Of Materials and Table pages to learn more about working with these table types.

Wiring List

A Wiring List is an automatically generated table object that displays the start and end points and parameter values for each wire in the harness.

A Wiring List
A Wiring List

To place a Wiring List, select the Place » Wiring List from the main menus or use the Wiring List command from the Active Bar.

Select the placed Wiring List to access its property settings in the Properties panel. This provides configuration options for most aspects of the Wiring List, including its visual attributes and data content.

The Properties panel in its WiringList mode (the General and Columns tabs) 
The Properties panel in its WiringList mode (the General and Columns tabs)

Changing the order of the rows is not currently supported.
Wire parameters (and their values) specified in the wiring diagram are reflected in the wiring list. An additional column is added to the wiring list for each wire parameter. These additional columns are hidden by default – use the visibility controls on the Columns tab of the Properties panel when the Wiring List is selected to show these columns in the design space (and hide the default columns if needed).

Connection Table

A Connection Table is an automatically generated table object that shows the wires connected to every connection point (connector pin, splice, etc.) in the harness.

A Connection Table (for all components)
A Connection Table (for all components)

To place a Connection Table, select Place » Connection Table from the main menus or use the Connection Table command from the Active Bar.

Select the placed Connection Table to access its property settings in the Properties panel. This provides configuration options for most aspects of the Connection Table, including its visual attributes and data content. You can use the Component option to show the data of all project components in the table or the data of a specific component.

The Properties panel in its ConnectionTable mode (the General and Columns tabs) 
The Properties panel in its ConnectionTable mode (the General and Columns tabs)

Changing the order of the rows is not currently supported.
Wire parameters (and their values) specified in the wiring diagram are reflected in the connection table. An additional column is added to the connection table for each wire parameter. These additional columns are hidden by default - use the visibility controls on the Columns tab of the Properties panel when the Connection Table is selected to show these columns in the design space (and hide the default columns if needed).
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Note

The features available depend on your Altium product access level. Compare features included in the various levels of Altium Designer Software Subscription and functionality delivered through applications provided by the Altium 365 platform.

If you don’t see a discussed feature in your software, contact Altium Sales to find out more.

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