Defining Wiring Connections for Electrical Devices To describe connectors and other connection details of attaching of electrical devices that can be wired, dedicated type of Geometry called Wiring Object is used. All specified parameters and details of the Wiring Object are defined in Geometry Type Wiring Object in the GDTF Spec. In this example, we define connectors for a device which has a Power (Power In and Power Out via Neutrik Powercon True1), DMX (DMX In and DMX Out via XLR 5Pin) and a Network (RJ45 connector). Pigtail First we need to indicate physical placement of connectors on the device. This is done in the Geometry tab of the GDTF Builder by adding a Normal Geometry with a model of primitive type "Pigtail". The connectors are typically physically located on the base of the device, so we add it to the Base in our example. To add the Pigtail: select the Base of the device click Add Child Geometry give it a name Pigtail in the Select Model choose New Pigtail adjust Dimensions select Geometry Type - Normal Geometry click OK adjust X, Y, Z to position the Pigtail to the appropriate location on the Base Adding Pigtail screen Pigtail is a child of the Base Pigtail positioned to indicate real location of connectors on the device If the device has more than one panel with connectors, add multiple Pigtails. For example linear products with Input on one end and Output on another end, or a device with Inputs on a base and Outputs on the yoke or head for some attachable accessory. Connections on the Pigtail are defined by Wiring Object geometry for each connector. All these Wiring Object geometries will be children of the Pigtail. Wiring Object geometry has the following properties. Not all the following properties are used in all Wiring Objects. Name - user friendly name to indicate the connection. Good name could include IN for input, OUT for output. Do not use the Connector Type in the name. Connector Type - select the type of used connector or provide new connector type. Component Type - the type of the electrical component used, for example Consumer, PowerSource, Input, Output and so on. Some of these Component Types might extend the list of possible properties of the Wiring Object. Signal Type - the type of the signal, for example DMX512, AnalogVideo and so on Pin Count - the number of available pins of the connector type to connect internal wiring to it Signal Layer - this indicates connection between Wiring Objects in the device itself. In one device, all Wiring Geometries that use the same Signal Layer are connected. Special value is 0, which is connecting all Wiring Geometries together. Orientation - indicates relative location of this connector on a connection panel WireGroup - name of the group to which this wiring object belongs to, for grouping all DMX connectors together by setting the WireGroup to "DMX" for all DMX connectors. Power Input We start by defining Powercon True1 Power Input connection for our device: Select Pigtail geometry click Add Child Geometry give it a name Power IN in the Select Model choose New Empty Geometry select Geometry Type - Wiring Object And also fill in the properties of the Wiring Object: Connector Type - Powercon True1 Component Type - Consumer Signal Type - Power, or leave empty Pin Count - 3 Signal Layer - 1 Orientation - Top WireGroup - Power or leave empty Electrical PayLoad - the electrical consumption in Watts. Voltage Range Min - the voltage range's minimum value Voltage Range Max - the voltage range's maximum value Frequency Range Min - the Frequency range's minimum value Frequency Range Max - the Frequency range's maximum value CosPhi - The Power Factor of the device click OK Properties of Power IN Wiring Object Power Output Our device allows daisy chaining power from one device to another. We continue by defining Powercon True1 Power Output connection: Select Pigtail geometry click Add Child Geometry give it a name Power OUT in the Select Model choose New Empty Geometry select Geometry Type - Wiring Object And also fill in the properties of the Wiring Object: Connector Type - Powercon True1 Component Type - Output Signal Type - Power, or leave empty Pin Count - 3 Signal Layer - 1 - this indicates that IN and OUT are connected inside our device Orientation - Top WireGroup - Power or leave empty click OK DMX Connectors We can continue by adding DMX connectors. These are typically In and Out, we will use NetworkInput and NetworkOutput as a Component Type, the Signal Type will be DMX512. To indicate that In and Out are connected, we will assign same Signal Layer to both DMX connectors. In case that there are both 3Pin and 5Pin XLR connectors on the device which are typically all connected to each other, all of them will have the same Signal Layer number. To add 5 Pin XLR DMX In: Select Pigtail geometry click Add Child Geometry give it a name DMX IN in the Select Model choose New Empty Geometry select Geometry Type - Wiring Object And also fill in the properties of the Wiring Object: Connector Type - 5-pin XLR Component Type - NetworkInput Signal Type - DMX512 Pin Count - 5 Signal Layer - 2 Orientation - Bottom WireGroup - DMX or leave empty click OK To add 5 Pin XLR DMX Out: Select Pigtail geometry click Add Child Geometry give it a name DMX OUT in the Select Model choose New Empty Geometry select Geometry Type - Wiring Object And also fill in the properties of the Wiring Object: Connector Type - 5-pin XLR Component Type - NetworkOutput Signal Type - DMX512 Pin Count - 5 Signal Layer - 2 Orientation - Bottom WireGroup - DMX or leave empty click OK If the device has also 3 Pin XLR DMX Input and Output, do the same as above, just change the Pin Count to 3. The Signal Layer will be the same if all DMX connectors are connected inside the device. If the device also has RJ45 network connection, this is how to add it: Select Pigtail geometry click Add Child Geometry give it a name Ethernet in the Select Model choose New Empty Geometry select Geometry Type - Wiring Object And also fill in the properties of the Wiring Object: Connector Type - 10/100 BaseT ethernet type Component Type - NetworkInOut Signal Type - can remain empty or mention a specific protocol this output is for, for example Video Pin Count - 8 Signal Layer - 3 Orientation - Left WireGroup - can remain empty, especially if there is only one connector of this type click OK We are done. After adding Power In and Out, DMX 5 pin In and Out and also Ethernet port, this is what the geometry tree will look like: Pigtail with connectors Hope this helps Petr See all Robe Knowledge Sharing Articles.