Often when we are creating wiring diagrams we are limited by our page size for content – sometimes as small as 8.5″x11″ often 11″x17″. I have designed using both – and used both in the field. I can tell you I prefer to draw on 11″x17″ but when I am in the field troubleshooting I would rather handle and carry a smaller stack of paper.
A helpful construct now in Mentor Graphic’s Capital Harness System tool suite is the concept of a “highway”. Highways are also known as tramways and raceways. These objects come in quite handy when trying to incorporate a large amount of content in a small amount of space.
A highway represents multiple conductors (wires and/or nets) in a single graphical representation. Shown in the image below is a simple highway construct that illustrates the functionality. The conductors originating on the left travel through the highway object and are distributed to the connectors on the right.
This construct can be very helpful when constructing diagrams that are very cluttered and dense with content and you wish to represent a segment of connectivity in a small space. Highways can be shared across multiple designs and will preserve the integrity of the signals from one end to the other.
Capital Analysis can still be used to simulate the connectivity of the diagram through the highway object – no special modelling is required. One can think of the highway as a graphical construct – the underlying data model sees the endpoints of the conductors even if the conductors ends are separated by many sheets.