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Set up

Reference — The “Set up” task: placing and removing carriers, colors, ply count and numbers, yarn and covering, tube threads and saving setups

What you use this area for

Before a program can run, the machine needs carriers. The machine model comes empty: you place the carriers yourself or select a saved setup at the top and adjust it. Colors, ply count and yarn determine what the braid looks like in the 3D preview; together you save everything as a setup. You then create your programs on a setup.

Placing and removing carriers always belongs to the setup, never to the program. Even during recording, it does not become a program command.

The screen at a glance

📷 Screenshot missing

Subject: “Set up” task with the groups Carriers (Color for new carriers, Select all carriers, Remove all carriers), Yarn (Material diameter, Covering) and Setup; above it the selection card of a carrier with ply count 3 and individual colors. How to create: Customer build with a model licence, open a machine, “Set up” tab, click a carrier and set the ply count to 3. Target file: assets/screenshots/braiding-simulator/bestuecken.png

In the Set up task, the following applies in the machine view:

  • Click on an empty position places a carrier in the color for new carriers.
  • Click on a carrier selects it; the selection card shows its properties.
  • Right-click on a carrier removes it.
  • Ctrl + click or Ctrl + drag selects several carriers, Ctrl+A selects all.
  • Click on an empty tube threads the yarn in, see Tube threads.

If you place a carrier mid-run, the simulator puts it in the start arrangement at the position from which it runs exactly to this spot. If that is not possible without a collision, it reports No carrier can be placed here at …; then place it at the start or on another position.

Controls in detail

"Carriers" group

Element Effect
Color for new carriers Button showing the current placement color. A click opens the selection: Standard colors from the color library, Recently used and Choose custom color…. New carriers always get the selected color; the default is blue. Carriers without a color of their own from older setups keep their automatically assigned colors.
Select all carriers Selects all carriers so that you can change ply count, arrangement or color together (in the machine also Ctrl+A).
Remove all carriers After a confirmation prompt, takes all carriers off the machine. A saved setup is kept; the Setup list then no longer shows a setup.

"Yarn" group

Field Meaning
Material diameter Diameter of one yarn in mm (as in the calculation), 0.05 to 50 mm. With a ply count above 1, the ribbon of a carrier is that many yarns wide. The value gives the 3D preview its scale: without a core, the braid pulls together down to the set covering, and its diameter follows from the yarn. With a core, core and yarn determine how densely the threads cover the core. It is the same value as in the take-up. ✕ clears the setup's value; then the value of an older program or this PC's default applies.
Covering How densely the material covers the braid, calculated as in the calculation Covering (for a flat braid, the filling grade), 30 to 100 % in steps of 5. 100 % means pulled tight as on the machine. Less keeps the braid wider with the same material; diameter, lay length and take-up follow from it.

Material diameter and covering belong to the setup, like color and ply count, and are saved with it. The program stays unchanged; only for your own program with a take-up does the simulator recalculate the m/min.

The covering can only be set without a core:

  • With a core, it follows from core, yarn and braiding angle; the field only shows it.
  • A spiral and compact cross-sections such as packing are always full; the field is at 100 % and locked.

If the preview cannot draw this little covering at a very flat angle, it reports At …° the preview cannot draw this little covering: … % is set, the picture shows … %. The take-up calculates with … %.

Tube threads

If the machine has tubes, the Yarn group shows the note Tubes: a click on a tube threads the yarn; color and core diameter then appear in the card at the top.

Tube Thread
Guide tube (at the gear center) Axial thread
Axial thread tube (between gears) Axial thread
Central tube (machine center) Core

A click on an empty tube threads the yarn in (Guide tube Z3: Axial thread threaded in.). A click on a tube that already has a thread only selects it. You remove the thread and set its color and the core diameter in the selection card. The tube threads belong to the setup.

"Setup" group

Save as new setup… creates the current arrangement as a new setup (the same as in the ⋯ menu next to Setup), see Save setup. The note below it reminds you: “Save” at the top writes changes back to the selected setup.

Selection card: carrier and tube

A single carrier

The card is titled Carrier n selected, or for an empty position Gear n · position m selected, and shows Occupied by carrier n · 2 yarns. or Empty.

Field Meaning
Ply count Number of yarns run in parallel on this carrier, 1 to 12.
Arrangement Compactly packed keeps the combined thread roughly round. Flat side by side lays all yarns side by side and makes the combined thread wider and thinner.
Individual colors Button 1 color… or n colors…: opens Individual colors of the plying with one color per yarn. You also change the color of a carrier with ply count 1 here.
Number The carrier number. New carriers automatically get the lowest free number (Assign automatically); you can overwrite it. If another carrier already has the number, the program offers to swap the numbers (Swap numbers). Each number exists only once.
Remove carrier / Place carrier Removes the carrier or places one on the empty position.

Several carriers

With n carriers selected, changes apply immediately to the whole selection. The card shows differing initial values as — different —.

Element Effect
Ply count, Arrangement For all selected carriers.
Color… One color for all selected carriers; with a ply count above 1, for all yarns.
Color by running direction The clockwise carriers get one color, the counterclockwise carriers the other, red and yellow by default.

Tube

The card names the tube type and identifier (for example Guide tube Z3), its position and its dimensions.

Element Effect
Axial thread threaded in or Core threaded in Ticked: the thread is threaded in. Without the tick, it is removed.
Color… Color of the thread (only when threaded in).
Core diameter Only on the central tube: diameter of the core. In the 3D preview it determines the braid diameter; the braid lies on it. Fill the bore uses the diameter of the bore.

Saving setups

Every setup is your own: it is created on the empty machine or as a copy of another setup. A machine can have any number of setups, and each setup has its own programs.

  • Save in the header bar writes changed carriers, colors and yarn back to the selected setup. If no setup is selected (for example after Remove all carriers), the program asks for a name.
  • Save as new setup… creates another setup.
  • Rename and delete are in the ⋯ menu next to Setup, see The simulator screen.

Save setup

Save as new setup… opens the Save setup dialog:

📷 Screenshot missing

Subject: “Save setup” dialog with the field “Name of the setup” (suggestion “Round 2”) and the ticked box “Take program “…” along as a copy”. How to create: Customer build with a model licence, open a machine with a setup and one of its programs, “Set up” tab, click “Save as new setup…”. Target file: assets/screenshots/braiding-simulator/besetzung-speichern.png

Field Meaning
Name of the setup Suggestion: the name of the selected setup followed by a number, for example Round 2; without a selected setup Setup n. If a setup with the same name exists, the program asks whether to overwrite it with the current arrangement.
Take program “…” along as a copy Only when a program is selected; ticked by default. The new setup gets a copy of the open program. The program itself stays with its setup.

Save creates the setup immediately (Setup "…" saved (32 carriers)., with a program copy also With a copy of “…”.). Afterwards the new setup is selected, with the program copy or without a program.

In the web app

  • The Covering cannot be set. The Material diameter applies per browser to all machines and is not saved with the setup.
  • Tube threads cannot be threaded in by clicking; they only come from a saved setup.
  • Placing and removing carriers is only possible while the run is stopped.
  • Color for new carriers additionally offers the choice of Palette, Color all carriers and Open color database. In the card of a carrier, you set the ply count with − and +.

Details: Braiding Simulator (web app).

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