Creating a Bundle With New Route

This task shows you how to "follow" a flexible, meaning route parallel to part of an existing flexible. When you route a flexible as explained below you are creating a 'bundle'. A bundle is a type object that you can view in the specifications tree. It constrains one or more tubes to a master tube, to keep the tubes together.      
You should be familiar with concepts and steps described in Routing Flexibles. In the example below the user wants to create a bundle by adding a new route between the two unconnected components, and wants to use the existing tube as a master which the new tube will follow.

You should have placed points on the routable because these are used to indicate the portion you want to parallel.

A bundle can also be created with two or more existing routes - see Creating a Bundle With Existing Routes for more information.
1. Click the Flexible Tube Routing button to open the Flexible Routing dialog box and then select the start point of your route. Click the Follow Tube button in the Flexible Routing dialog box. The Follow Tube dialog box displays. In the example below the user has already made some selections.
  2. Select the Center to Center option and make selections in the other fields.
  • The points are labeled as soon as you select the Master Tube, which is the tube to which you will route parallel to.
  • Select the start and end points - these are the points where your new route will parallel the master route. You can select in the viewer or by clicking on the down arrow next to each field.
  • Enter an offset value - this is the value by which the new route will be offset from the master route.
  3. The compass displays at the start point, and two circles display at the start and end points. The circles represent the location where the new route will parallel the master route. You can use the compass to manipulate the location, as shown below.
  4. Click the Reverse Direction button to flip the location of the new route to the opposite side of the master route.

 

 
  5. Click the Tangent to Surface button if you want the new route to be parallel to the compass base plane. In the two images below the red circle shows how changing the compass base plane changes the location of the new route.
  6. Click OK in the Follow Tube dialog box to return to the Flexible Routing dialog box. A preview of your route displays. Select the connector on the second component to complete your route. Click OK to exit the Flexible Routing command.

If there is a clash at the intersection of two tubes then you may need to place a point on the master route to realign the parallel routing.

  • You can "follow" only one point. In this case the new route will parallel the master route just at that one location.
  • You can route parallel to more than one master route, or to more than one section of the same master route. To do this, repeat the procedure described above.
  • The location at which the tubes are constrained together - where the circles display - is known as a bundle section.