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Building a Wiring Harness

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[!TIP] Watch the Chapter 1 walkthrough below to see how to set up your project and add your first components in seconds.

Watch the Quick Start Video on YouTube

Absolutely free testing, no credit card required. No strings attached. Full Professional Component Library access with a 15-wire per project limit for free accounts.


1. Create a Project

Open Project Management and click Create New Project. Name your project and the design canvas will open.

2. Add Components

Open the Library to find the parts you need.

You can search for specific components or filter by category. When you add a part, I'd recommend renaming the connectors to something that makes sense for your project (like "LinkECU A"). It makes it much easier to keep track of everything later.

To rename, right-click the connector name (like C001) and select "Rename Connector".

Now just arrange the parts on the canvas. You can drag components, pinout lists, and descriptions to wherever they are easiest to read.

3. Make Connections

Select a pin on the device tree or canvas to start a connection. This opens the connection dialog.

The "From" section is already filled out. Just pick the component and pin you want to connect to. If a pin is grayed out, it means something is already connected there—you can still connect to it (like for splices), but the system is just letting you know.

Make sure the wire gauge is correct for what you're doing.

Manual Selection

You can always override the suggested color or gauge. The system will remember your choice and won't reset it if you edit the connection later.

4. Create Bundles

If your canvas looks messy with wires going everywhere, use bundles to clean it up. Press the Bundle button.

Click anywhere on the canvas to place a bundle point, then drag your wires into it. You can add as many points as you need to get the harness shape you want.

If you need to split an existing wire segment, press the Bundle button and drag the wire. A new point will be added automatically.

As you drag components and bundle points, you'll see the wire lengths update in real time. You can also set a length manually by clicking the measurement label.

5. Connect Connectors between layers

Making wiring harness in separate parts, such as engine side and body side, you can use multilayer functionality. This happens when you have connectors already set in different layers. Right click the connector and select connect to other layer.

6. Highlight Wires

You can highlight a single wire by clicking the icon on the Device Tree. This dims everything else so you can see exactly what you're working on.

7. Connection Status

When all pins on a component are connected, the circle next to it turns green. This just means everything has a connection—it doesn't check if you connected it to the right place!

8. Documentation

  • Formboard: Print a 1:1 image to tape on your workbench. It has all the measurements and pinouts you need to build the harness on top of it.
  • Schematics: These are created automatically based on your canvas connections.
  • Wire Tables: These list every wire and its exact length. In the real world, you'll want to add a little extra length when cutting just in case.
  • Parts List: This is generated from the library data and your canvas layout. Always double-check your parts list before ordering to make sure it's exactly what you need.