Routing

Contents

The Routing component is a path through a series of points on other components: the run of a wire harness, a hydraulic, pneumatic, fuel or oxygen line, an air-conditioning duct, a control cable or pushrod, or a drive shaft. Each point lies on a component, so the route follows when that component moves or changes shape. The route reports its length and, given a mass per unit length, its mass, which Mass Properties includes. A route is a curve, not a surface: it is drawn as a line, and it is not meshed or exported.

Quick Start

1. Add a Routing component.
2. On the Design tab, click Add Multiple, then click on the components in the 3D view at each point of the route in turn. Click Stop Adding when done.
3. Choose a point in the list to adjust it: its Parent, its coordinates, an Offset, and a Radius to round the corner there.
4. Give Mass/Len on the Mass tab to weigh the route.

Routing Points

The route runs through its points in the order of the list (Figure 1); the arrows beside the list reorder them.

Most components follow only their parent. A route follows every component it has a point on, wherever those are in the model's tree, and its own place in the tree does not matter. So one route can run from the fuselage, along the wing, and into a nacelle that tilts on a Hinge, and it stretches and bends as the nacelle turns.

Figure 1. A route over a pod and onto a wing through four points. Point 1 is set off above the pod; the corner at point 3 is rounded.

Points are placed by clicking in the 3D view (Figure 2). Add, Insert Before and Reset Point act on the next click: Add puts a new point at the end of the route, Insert Before puts one before the chosen point, and Reset Point moves the chosen point. Add Multiple and Insert Multiple do the same at every click until Stop Adding, and the route is drawn through the points placed so far.

Figure 2. The Routing Points, Parent and Coordinate groups of the Design tab for the route over the pod and the wing, with point 1 chosen: it lies on the pod at U 0.12, W 0, given as UW, and its RST and LMN coordinates are greyed.

A click picks a point of a shown component's tessellation and sets the routing point at the nearest place on that component's surface: the component becomes the point's parent, and the point is given by its surface and its U and W on it. A click sets the point's Coord Type to UW. Its RST and LMN coordinates follow from where it now is, so either can be chosen again afterward without moving the point.

Placing a Point

Parent is the component the point lies on, and Surface which of its surfaces, one for each symmetric copy and each surface of a multi-surface component. Coord Type chooses how the point is given on that surface; the coordinates are those of the XForm tab's attachment, described in Attachment Coordinates:

Whichever is chosen, the others are kept up to date and shown greyed; $\eta$MN is ROUTE_PT_EtaMN in the API. A point on a component with no surface, such as a Blank, lies at that component's origin, so Blanks can carry a route through free space.

Offset

Offset moves the point away from where it lies on its parent. Rel gives the offset in the axes the point is attached by -- the surface's axes at that point for UW, RST and LMN, the parent's axes for Comp -- so the point keeps its place relative to the surface as the parent turns. Abs gives it in the model's axes. While the Routing component is selected, the 3D view draws those axes for the chosen point, at the point it is offset from. Use an offset to run a route a set distance above a skin or inside a structure.

Rounded Corners

A route is a series of straight segments between its points. Radius rounds the corner at a point with a circular arc of that radius, tangent to both segments, so the route no longer passes through the point itself; zero leaves a sharp corner. The ends of the route are never rounded. Give each corner the bend radius the real line will have, so that the length is right.

Length and Mass

Length is the length of the route, rounded corners included, and Mass is that length times Mass/Len from the Mass tab. Symm Length and Symm Mass count every symmetric copy. The Mass Properties analysis includes a route with a nonzero Mass/Len as a line of mass along it, with its center of gravity and moments of inertia, one for each symmetric copy.

Symmetry

A route has no placement of its own: its points are where its parents put them, so its location, rotation and attachment are greyed. Its symmetry still applies, about the planes and axes the symmetry controls choose, so a route on one side of an aircraft can be mirrored to the other. A route cannot be flipped.

Shared Tabs

The Gen, XForm and Mass tabs are common to every component; see Gen, XForm and Mass. A route has no volume or area, so of the Mass tab only Mass/Len and the specified mass apply; with no placement of its own, a route's specified center of gravity is in the model's axes. A route has no Sub tab.

Scripting

The OpenVSP API builds and queries routes with these functions:

A point's parms are in the group RoutePt: CoordType (ROUTE_PT_COMP, ROUTE_PT_UV, ROUTE_PT_RST, ROUTE_PT_LMN, ROUTE_PT_EtaMN), SurfIndx, U, W, R, S, T, L, M, N, Eta, DeltaType (ABS or REL), DeltaX, DeltaY, DeltaZ and their ...Rel forms, and Radius. The route's LinearDensity is in the group Mass_Props, and its Length, SymmLength, Mass and m_SymmMass in Results.