Electrical Design > Cabling > Routing Cables > About Fixing the Length of a Cable
About Fixing the Length of a Cable
You can define the length of a cable that is maintained for the full length of the cable, ribbon cable, or wire. When you move a location on a fixed-length cable and a segment becomes shorter or longer, another segment along the cable path increases or decreases proportionally in length.
Use the Fix Overall Length command to fix the length of a cable. When you display fixed lengths, fixed overall lengths highlight in green and fixed lengths between locations highlight in blue.
A message appears with the number of fixed length segments found. Click OK to clear the highlighting.
To Set a Cable to a Fixed Length
1. To set the length of a cable segment, click Fixed Length > Fix Length. You are prompted to select two locations.
2. Select the two required locations on the cable to apply a fixed length to a segment. The system displays the current length of the segment which you can accept or modify. You can then use this dimension in a relation.
3. To set the overall length of the cable, click Fixed Length > Fix Overall Length. You are prompted to select a cable to fix the length. The system displays the length of the cable which you can accept or modify.
4. To remove the fixed length constraint of the cable or segment, click Fixed Length > Free Length.
5. To modify the value of a fixed length cable or segment, click Fixed Length > Change Length.
6. To display the length of a fixed length cable or segment, click Fixed Length > Show Length.
7. To display fixed length segments, click Fixed Length > Display Fixed Length Segments.
To Calculate the Current Length of a Segment
1. Click Cable Length. You are prompted to select a cable.
2. Select the cable. You are prompted to select two locations.
3. Select two locations. The segment length appears in the message area.
To Use a Function to Calculate the Length of a Segment
1. Click Tools > Relations. The Relations dialog box opens.
2. Click Utilities > Evaluate. The Evaluate Expression dialog box opens.
3. Specify the Cabling mode function cable_len() in the Expression box to calculate the length of a cable.
To calculate the current length of any segment of a cable or bundle, use the following syntax:
cable_len ("cable_name",location_id1,location_id2)
To calculate the length for the complete cable from end to end, use the following syntax:
cable_len ("cable_name",-1,-1)
where
◦ cable_name is the name of the cable being measured in the current harness.
◦ location_id is the internal feature ID of the location through which the cable_name is routed. Where 1 and 2 denote the two cable locations between which the length is to be calculated.
4. Click Evaluate. The length of the cable or bundle is displayed in the Result box.
5. Click Close in the Evaluate Expression dialog box.
6. Click OK in the Relations dialog box.
To Delete All or Part of an Individual Cable Segment
1. Click Route > Delete Cable Portion. You are prompted to select two locations.
2. Press CTRL and select two locations. The DEL CABLES menu appears.
3. Click the check box of the routed item you want to delete between the locations. To delete all items in the list, click Select All.
4. Click Done Sel. The cable or network section is deleted.
* 
If you delete all cable or bundle portions from the assembly, this still does not remove it from the list of available cables that can be routed. The cable or bundle feature still exists.