Electrical design

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 :wink: 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 :slight_smile:


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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I don’t thinks it’s a trivial task to make an electrical design software that keeps track of all your components, their hierarchies, electrical connections, symbols used, etc. I’ve been using Aucotec’s Engineering Base but the version I have only runs on Windows 7, so rather than upgrade to a W10 compatible version I’d like to switch to a more widely used platform. So far the best alternatives on the market are SolidWorks Electrical and AutoCAD Electrical. The cool thing about these is that they seamlessly integrate with their 3D functionality. Something of the sort for Rhino would be extremely good to have as a lot of mechanical designs also need the added electrical documentation.

I have both Solidworks, and Autocad electrical, so even if the plugin for Rhino that was for electrical work / machine controls was several thousand dollars Id still be way ahead. The plug in “Rhino Piping” isn’t to far from what I would think an electrical plugin would look like. Maybe when I retire I will work on developing a plug in called “Rhino Electrical © ™” as my next way of making extra money.

Hi, this seems like a quite promising area for Rhino. I had one customer asking about if there is any plug-in. Anything new on this?

Also @RBL how come RhinoPiping was close to that? If so, we have a partner developing a Piping plugin for Rhino 6 & 7, it will be ready for distribution soon, if the way of piping would be somehow similar, I think we can manage to develop based on it.

plus, is this GD&T method you mentioned satisfactory?

I’m working on a mixed reality system for Assembly Assistance of electrical designs. The positions of the components are shown on the mounting area with laser projectors. Additional info can be projected with a beamer or on a monitor.

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Parts are parts, It doesn’t matter if its pipe , pumps and valves, or wires, motors and relays. And pipe in a 3d model in nothing more then a really thick wire or cable, I only down loaded the lite version and with time I could have made it work more or less for me, but time is not always something I have much of.

As far as the GD&T its ok

Jess

Can you go a little bit more in depth with this,

Hi @RBL ,

I’ve developed a Rhino plug-in which makes projections for LAP-Laser projectors. It works with complex 3D geometry, takes care of hidden lines and optimizes the distribution of the projection in a multiple-projector-setup.

The assembly sequences can be controlled by the layer order and hierarchy. The projections are very precise and can directly be used to position, drill and mount for example electrical components in a cabinet. These laser systems are used in many different industries CAD-based industrial laser projection systems | LAP

So far I was just using the 3D and Meta data from various E-CAD tools. Most of them would benefit using Rhino’s 3D engine :wink:

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I am total newbie to Rhino and GH but interested in trying to find a solution for a visual power cable distribution calculator - which should be quite basic - to allow you to set-up say

  1. Main Panel Board at say 400V (a simple block with attributes)
  2. 3 x feeder cables at say 50m, 75m, 100m to 3 Sub Panel Boards (lines connected to the block with attributes of length etc)
  3. a further Sub-Sub Panel Board from say 1 of them (another simple block with attributes)

Once this is drawn out in 2D, you should be able to use GH to calculate the required cable size base on current / distance / volt drop

Then you should be able to drag the Boards around to see the impact of locating them in different locations on site and the impact of the cable size

Then some sort of optimisation to find the optimal location to achieve overall lowest cost of cable / most effecient design

Anyone know how the heck I would get started with that without a VERY steep learning curve ! any pointers to existing tutorials or anything much appreciated