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Trying to correctly make a Twisted Pair Cable but failing.

Question asked by Erick Ponce on Mar 28, 2018
Latest reply on Apr 18, 2018 by Allan Bowers

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Hello there!
I am currently struggling with a Twisted cable pair.

I successfully made a twisted cable pair, but the results are not what I need:

You can appreciate that the "twisted" cable is actually not twisted, because the cables (black and white), overlap:

And this is not what I need, what I am looking for is something like this (real life twisted pair cables):

I want to twist them to know how much cable will I need, and I will use like 30 pairs of cable, and I want them all to have the same length, plus the most accurate length possible from solidworks. This is for a School project, and I want to make good design points for this (Me and my team got solidworks student license from a local distributor).

This is my current configuration from my twisted pair:

Unfortunately I don't have any full manual to look for the documentation on how to use this tool nor solidworks has proper help info on how to use it.

I've been struggling 2 days on this, I would really appreciate any help from this issue =)!

Evan Stanek Mar 28, 2018 2:37 PM

Correct Answer

SOLIDWORKS Electrical won't really aid in this endeavor, we are pragmatists, how long is the cable or wire that is being routed so we can order enough? If we get that, we are good to go.

If you are wanting that mathematical precision of how each conductor's length is affected by the spiraling nature, that's more of a question for SOLIDWORKS, maybe somebody else can chime in on that. Hope it works out!

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Evan Stanek Mar 28, 2018 2:37 PM

SOLIDWORKS Electrical won't really aid in this endeavor, we are pragmatists, how long is the cable or wire that is being routed so we can order enough? If we get that, we are good to go.

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Robert Hanrahan Mar 28, 2018 3:35 PM

I do not have much more to add to what Evan stated.

I would offer a suggestion though; have you thought of just buying a 2 conductor twisted pair cable? Belden is a good place to start. It might be a little more expensive but would save you a bunch of time during assembly....

I just did a quick check on Amazon and you can get 100' of 22 awg 2 cond twisted for $22.00.

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S. Casale Mar 28, 2018 3:40 PM

In my experience this has been done as two sweeps when and if presentation is necessary. This is not done in an active model, but rather a representative model.

Routing doesn't support it.

SolidWorks will get there.

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Ian Worrall @ S. Casale on Mar 29, 2018 4:33 AM

It is possible to do this as a single swept feature, see the attached part.

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20awg wire.SLDPRT.zip16.0 MB

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Erick Ponce Mar 29, 2018 5:50 AM

I see, thank you all for the replies.

I am thinking on maybe make a rule of 3:

1m of a pair is equally to X amount of twisted pair cable, and multiply that offset from the length that solidworks EL tells me. It can work.

On the other hand, when I twist the cable from sw EL, the length of the cable actually increases, maybe I should use a preset with the correct "Twist per meter", you can see that the "Twisted length" actually increases depending on the twists:

It just happens that SW doesn't show it graphically. I hope it is right, I'll have to make some validations on this twisted pair feature to feel confident.

Thank you guys for the support=)!

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Marc Wilson Apr 1, 2018 7:14 PM

If you are looking for true length, go do a TEST of 1m wires, twisted to your correct number of turns per inch. Get the twisted length and calculate your scaler value.

Then, in your wire reports, for the length reported field you can use an IIF statement and selectively multiply wire types in the report. So, if wire type is TWIST-22AWG, you'd test that feature then multiple the length by your factor.

However, if you are doing this for display purposes, you'll have too simply edit wires/routes and see if you can do a helical sweep or something.

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Allan Bowers Apr 19, 2018 12:38 AM

I discovered a way to do this but it was a while ago now and I forgot exactly how I achieved it. Basically you route your wires as individual pairs as I assume attaches to its own pin at either connecting ends. Once the route is done you take the resultant 3D sketch and open it as its own assy and save it as a new name. Then as stated earlier in the thread you sweep a line of length equal to the dia of your wire along the paths of the sketch. You need two planes so that the line is at the right angle. Plus select 'twisted along' when you do the sweep. The result looks like a piece of ribbon twisted along your route. Then you make a new sketch and use the edges of the ribbon to covert entities. The result is a twisted line following the edge of the ribbon. Then you go back to your assy and edit route. Copy and paste the sketch in place of the original route SWE made. I left the end splines segments attached at each end and then connected them to the twisted sketch. When you close and rebuild SWE sees the sketch in the Route Parts as the original it made when creating the route and presto you have a twisted pair. I haven't checked but I am pretty sure the wire length would be correct. Here is a pic of my amp project WIP you can see I have done one pair. The remaining Black/Red pairs need to be twisted too, but I haven't done it yet as I am still routing the remainder of the board. I will try and take some screen shots of the assy I used to create the sweeps with the planes showing so you get what I mean. BTW I am by no means an expert. This was trial and error and allot of searching the threads for similar answers. I copied the answer from a SW thread about how to just represent twisted wires and applied my work around to SWE and it seemed to work although it is a lot of work.

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7 Replies

Evan Stanek Mar 28, 2018 2:37 PM
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Correct Answer
SOLIDWORKS Electrical won't really aid in this endeavor, we are pragmatists, how long is the cable or wire that is being routed so we can order enough? If we get that, we are good to go.

If you are wanting that mathematical precision of how each conductor's length is affected by the spiraling nature, that's more of a question for SOLIDWORKS, maybe somebody else can chime in on that. Hope it works out!
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Robert Hanrahan Mar 28, 2018 3:35 PM
Mark Correct
Correct Answer
I do not have much more to add to what Evan stated.

I would offer a suggestion though; have you thought of just buying a 2 conductor twisted pair cable? Belden is a good place to start. It might be a little more expensive but would save you a bunch of time during assembly....

I just did a quick check on Amazon and you can get 100' of 22 awg 2 cond twisted for $22.00.
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Actions
S. Casale Mar 28, 2018 3:40 PM
Mark Correct
Correct Answer
In my experience this has been done as two sweeps when and if presentation is necessary. This is not done in an active model, but rather a representative model.

Routing doesn't support it.

SolidWorks will get there.
Like • Show 1 Like1
Actions
- Ian Worrall @ S. Casale on Mar 29, 2018 4:33 AM
  Mark Correct
  Correct Answer
  It is possible to do this as a single swept feature, see the attached part.
  Attachments
  - 20awg wire.SLDPRT.zip16.0 MB
  Like • Show 2 Likes2
  Actions
Erick Ponce Mar 29, 2018 5:50 AM
Mark Correct
Correct Answer
I see, thank you all for the replies.

I am thinking on maybe make a rule of 3:

1m of a pair is equally to X amount of twisted pair cable, and multiply that offset from the length that solidworks EL tells me. It can work.

On the other hand, when I twist the cable from sw EL, the length of the cable actually increases, maybe I should use a preset with the correct "Twist per meter", you can see that the "Twisted length" actually increases depending on the twists:

It just happens that SW doesn't show it graphically. I hope it is right, I'll have to make some validations on this twisted pair feature to feel confident.

Thank you guys for the support=)!
Like • Show 1 Like1
Actions
Marc Wilson Apr 1, 2018 7:14 PM
Mark Correct
Correct Answer
If you are looking for true length, go do a TEST of 1m wires, twisted to your correct number of turns per inch. Get the twisted length and calculate your scaler value.

Then, in your wire reports, for the length reported field you can use an IIF statement and selectively multiply wire types in the report. So, if wire type is TWIST-22AWG, you'd test that feature then multiple the length by your factor.

However, if you are doing this for display purposes, you'll have too simply edit wires/routes and see if you can do a helical sweep or something.
Like • Show 2 Likes2
Actions
Allan Bowers Apr 19, 2018 12:38 AM
Mark Correct
Correct Answer
I discovered a way to do this but it was a while ago now and I forgot exactly how I achieved it. Basically you route your wires as individual pairs as I assume attaches to its own pin at either connecting ends. Once the route is done you take the resultant 3D sketch and open it as its own assy and save it as a new name. Then as stated earlier in the thread you sweep a line of length equal to the dia of your wire along the paths of the sketch. You need two planes so that the line is at the right angle. Plus select 'twisted along' when you do the sweep. The result looks like a piece of ribbon twisted along your route. Then you make a new sketch and use the edges of the ribbon to covert entities. The result is a twisted line following the edge of the ribbon. Then you go back to your assy and edit route. Copy and paste the sketch in place of the original route SWE made. I left the end splines segments attached at each end and then connected them to the twisted sketch. When you close and rebuild SWE sees the sketch in the Route Parts as the original it made when creating the route and presto you have a twisted pair. I haven't checked but I am pretty sure the wire length would be correct. Here is a pic of my amp project WIP you can see I have done one pair. The remaining Black/Red pairs need to be twisted too, but I haven't done it yet as I am still routing the remainder of the board. I will try and take some screen shots of the assy I used to create the sweeps with the planes showing so you get what I mean. BTW I am by no means an expert. This was trial and error and allot of searching the threads for similar answers. I copied the answer from a SW thread about how to just represent twisted wires and applied my work around to SWE and it seemed to work although it is a lot of work.
Attachments
- EW Path Twisted.sldprt.zip2.5 MB
- twisted sweep2.SLDPRT.zip2.0 MB
- Twisted_Wire_Example.SLDPRT.zip3.4 MB
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Trying to correctly make a Twisted Pair Cable but failing.

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