Understanding Electrical System, Wiring and Harness Design Flow with SaberES Designer

Synopsys Editorial Staff

Aug 16, 2023 / 3 min read

The top-down methodology of SaberES Designer makes it a powerful tool for synthesis automation of system integration. It uses a database-driven design flow, which is supported by pre-defined part sets from corporate-wide libraries. These libraries cater to various design types such as Sub-System Design, System Design, Wiring Design, and Bundle Design. The integration of these designs into a single electric system design database is key to ensuring a robust and accurate system integration.

Top-Down Design Flow

The top-down methodology employed in SaberES Designer for synthesis automation of system integration provides a platform for design and automation verification. SaberES Designer is a database driven design flow where corporate-wide libraries provide predefined part sets for the following design types:

  • Sub-System Design: Reusable schematics with logical connections that represent a function (External lights, braking, engine control, etc.).
  • System Design: A vehicle projects Sub-System Designs are selected and used to build and synthesize the system design.
  • Wiring Design: Generated from the System Design and evolved by assigning physical objects such as wires, shells, inline connectors, etc.
  • Bundle Design: Generates 2D production harness drawings.

Having one electric system design database ensures system integration will be correct and robust for fast, accurate releases. 

SaberES Designer Diagram

Sub-System Design

Sub-System Designs (SSDs) are reusable schematics with logical connections that represent a function (External lights, Braking, Engine control etc.). SSDs are created based on the specifications determined by the function and stored in Sub-System libraries.

  • Electric components are placed from the libraries that also can contain a hardware model to be used to simulate the function.
  • Connectivity is created and defined using signals from database.

System Design

SSDs are used to build and synthesize the System Design for a series of vehicle projects including ‘excluding functions’. System Design is not about adding data, but about the integration of functions.

  • Data networks topologies are created and can be evaluated.
  • Electrical options are configured for the complete project.

Wiring Design

The Wiring Schematic Design is generated from the System Design by adding the ‘excluding options’ like LHD and RHD. Users can assign physical objects from a corporate database including: wires, shells, inline connectors, etc. Using SaberES Designer’s ‘Connector Manager Viewer’, users can partition a design into harnesses and quickly ensure correct inline cavity assignments across the complete vehicle. The ‘Assembly Library’ can be used to build filters for each unique buildable product with the ‘Assembly Library’.

  • Your physical wiring system can now be simulated to optimize it against the requirement to stay away from over engineering use pre-defined test benches.
  • Connections with the 3D MCAD tools (Catia, Creo and NX) will get BoM filtered for each vehicle configurations.

Bundle Design

A top-down design flow generates the harness drawing using data from the previous level. SaberES Designer Wiring Design is ideal for electrical objects (wires, connectors etc.) and connectivity in Bundle Design (no intermediate formats).

  • MCAD files containing the 3D routing can be imported and used to automate the creation of the harness drawings.
  • Multiple formats are supported to export your harness data to manufacturing that can be used to create formboards, cut and crimp data, etc.

Conclusion

The journey through the process of electrical system design, wiring, and harness using SaberES Designer reveals the effectiveness of the top-down methodology. Each step, from the creation of Sub-System Designs to the synthesis of System Design, and the assignment of physical objects in Wiring Design, contributes to the creation of an efficient electrical system. The final stage, Bundle Design, completes the process by generating 2D production harness drawings. The result is a comprehensive, optimized, and efficient electrical system, integral to the smooth operation of vehicle projects.

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