Cables

On the Cabling tab, you can create new cables and route them in the 3D model. The cable creation process can utilize existing cable data that has been defined, for example, in CADMATIC Electrical or CADMATIC P&ID.

To begin, start the Cable Manager tool, define the cable router settings, and generate a cable routing network of nodes and segments for cable way objects: cable trays, cable pipes, and cable penetrations.

After creating the cable routing network, you can start creating cables and routing them in the 3D model. For the routing part, you can use either the Cable Manager tool or the Cable List pane. You can route the cables automatically or manually. In the 3D model, the cables travel via the nodes and segments of the cable routing network. The ends of the cables are connected either to the electrical nodes of the specified "head" and "tail" equipment or to virtual nodes that act as placeholders until the equipment is modeled.

If the 3D layout of the cable ways changes, you may need to recreate the cable routing network to match the new layout. If there are already some routed cables at this point, the program will attempt to automatically adjust the existing cable routes based on the locations of the nodes and segments in the new network.

The cable router monitors the fill rate of all the segments to ensure their maximum capacity is not exceeded. You can run a diagnostics tool to see which alternative routes the automatic routing has rejected and the reasons for these rejections.

Once the cable routing is complete, fill rate views can be generated from the 3D model and incorporated into Plant Modeller drawings. In addition, the lengths of pre-cut cables and the cable pulling routes can be exported as listings.