I was wondering if there are any 3rd party developers out there working on an electrical plug to aid in mechanical design. Something similar to AutoCAD’S electrical or SOLIDWORKS electrical.
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Depending on what you’re aiming for u could do this using a the netlist from an electronics cad program and use it in grasshopper. I am indeed working on some scripts to fo this more easily. Developing gerber exporters seem to require a lisence though, but the format is quite straight forward to understand. What are trying to do more explicitly?
Just looking for something that is a bit automated to create 2d electrical schematics in Rhino. I use Rhino for mechanical design, the machines in these designs are some what complicated and use motors, pneumatics, switches, ect.
These machines also require controls documentation, and either I piece these together by cutting and pasting from previous schematics that I have created in Rhino or by using Microsoft Viso & electra e7 from Radica software. This works but Its not ideal.
Im not sure why you would want to use Rhino for drawing the schematics? The way I see it, the strength of Rhino is it’s potential to handle geometries, not lists. If I were you I would use a dedicated electronics-CAD program for drawing the schematic (ki-cad, eagle, altium, etc.) and then use the data from that process in GH to work with the actual board layout. If you’re creating “standard issue” board that will be hidden inside a casing, and not some experimental work, you’re probably better off doing the entire thing in a electronics-dedicated software.
I guess my response would be why not use it for electrical schematics. There are many different plugins for Rhino that enhance Rhino’s usefulness. If I need a design tool for piping, architecture, ship design, jewelry design, or even machining, these are available. I have the plugin RhinoCam that I use for 3d machining of molds and fixtures. It works with in the Rhino environment and it does this well at only a fraction of the cost of other cam software.
Rhino is very versatile that is why I use it. I can create a beautifully rendered machine; detailed down to the fasteners, guarding, and even painting schemes. Create the detail layouts to send to the shop floor to make the parts and pieces, and even create the tool paths to make those parts and pieces. All with one piece of software.
So if I can do all of this, why not have the ability to make a set of simple 2d electrical drawings.
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I was just asked about this today by our automation division. They would like a plug-in for Rhino to help with 2D schematics. My google search lead here.
Did you ever find one?
Thanks,
Dan
No and I sure would love to have one. And a plugin for a BOM would be great too
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Thank you.
Looks like I might have to dust off my programming skills and see what I can come up with.
I have a GD&T plug-in that I could probably massage into something useful.
I’ll let you test the results if/when I have something fairly solid to test.
Thanks,
Dan
GD&T plug in? I have a font generator I came across, its awkward to use but is useful.
Where did you find the plugin. Food for Rhino doing a search comes up with nothing I see as related.
I wrote it. It’s not publicly available.
Not knocking Rhino I use it almost exclusively but since there is something called layouts in Rhino and you can dimension your 2d drawings, it seems that besides the simple dimension tools GD&T would be nice feature. Along with a BOM feature
And to kinda poke at the GD&T need again here is an old thread
Came here with the same question.
First idea was to model ‘module by module’ (but as a GH newbie this is futilely long for my need - I got a resistor calculation modeled - even the 3D component part ‘idea’ but should be easy right? I can see the workflow, formulas, logic decision, add Anemone for electron/wave flow simulation and a output on GH gui components (lcds, leds, etc) or onto the model at stake.
@Vigardo was asking for a low pass filter here:
Someone always has a relative needs if you can design something so easily as in GH! Wave shaping is an old fancy of mine, the more knobs (low pass filters are a favorite) the better… I have an emerging plan to create some sound synthesis with GH in the future…
Maybe there’s a need for a GitHub project to model a shared/github library of electric/electronic/cpu/pcb/computer parts/racks/datacenters… batteries/motors/etc gha components… The MD slider is an oscilloscope, there’s rotary dials, you can output sin waves… It’s all there basically, alas the time…
My 2 cents - i wanted to be an IE at 9 
switched to many other subjects but never took my eye off IE (im an expert in information theory which is next to signal analysis) - can do anything but no experience other than synths, basic electronics. I have a nixie lamp i want to build, it’s in a box but dont ‘find’ the time since i have GH to play with (and learn).
And how do you model cables? 1, ok, a bunch of them? A car loom, DC racks? This subject is opening too many doors.
Did anything happen with this question in the mean time? I am looking for an integrated solution as well. In my case the PCB is part of the physical design. PCB design programs are more focused on the efficient translation from schematic to board while I need some flexibility in where I put my traces.
No nothing.
i’m slowing gravitating towards circuit/cabling designs and GH would be a big time saver but it’s a damn big project for my already divided brain in an area im not specialized (just knowledgeable). Still, it would open lots of bridges between board and case designs. First application being synthesizers and control layouts.
I am thinking about integrating Grasshopper with modelica.
I have no idea how big effort that would be or is it feasible nor am I expert in that field.
I am building services engineer and for me, it will be useful integration for future Spawn of EnergyPlus project. But it might be useful also for many more people from electronics, mechanics, automation etc.
What do you think?
I agree with Xavier, “it’s a damn big project for my already divided brain” If you have the time and have an interest in figuringing it out, no reason not to look into it.
Any new middleware makes Rhino/GH more powerfull and attractive horizontally.
Problem is keep up with the project… but if it gathers momentum, it might roll by itself…
I made some first steps 
Not sure though how to create circuits, connectors and graphs easily through GH environment.
Any ideas?
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Sorry no
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