Waypoint

Status: Implemented

Waypoint is a harness routing waypoint: a base point and a direction a wire passes through, placed against the model to steer a bundle around a bracket. A wire that enters a waypoint on one side leaves on the other — that is what makes it a pass-through rather than a junction. Splines attach their anchors to it and the Wire harness routes wires over the network it joins.

A waypoint is not a connection point. A part's connection points — the pins, connectors, pipe stubs a wire or a pipe actually ends on — are declared in the part's ports block, which is data rather than history; see Qualify. Only those terminations can be a wire's end.

Inputs

• waypointName (string, default Waypoint) – the display name the Wire Harness panel shows. References always use the feature id, so renaming a waypoint breaks nothing.
• directionRef (reference_selection, FACE / EDGE / PLANE / DATUM, single, default null) – optional geometry that sets the direction: a face's outward normal at its midpoint, an edge's direction, a plane or datum plane's normal. Without it the direction is the placement rotation's X axis.
• transform (transform, default position [0, 0, 0], rotation [0, 0, 0], scale [1, 1, 1]) – the base point (position, world) and, without a direction reference, the direction (rotationEuler applied to +X). The transform gizmo drags it.
• reverseDirection (boolean, default false) – flip the direction.
• extension (number, default 2) – how far a wire stays straight from the base point before it may bend. A spline anchor attached to the waypoint takes it as its forward and backward straight run.
• displayLength (number, default 6) – the length of the drawn line, centred on the base point.
• id (string, default null) – names everything the waypoint publishes, and is the waypoint's address.

Behaviour

• Waypoint produces no solid. It registers, all under its id:
  • the record the wire-harness router reads (point, unit direction, extension);
  • the base point {id}:Base;
  • the axis {id} (point + direction) — a revolve or sweep can reference it;
  • the plane frame {id} whose normal is the waypoint direction;
  • the drawn line {id}:PortLine, centred on the base point and spanning displayLength, because the wire passes through.
• The waypoint is drawn in the viewport as a light red line with a vertex at its base point, pickable like a committed sketch, listed in the Scene tree under the sketches.
• A wire may not end on a waypoint. A connection whose from or to names one is reported unrouted, naming it.
• A directionRef that names nothing is reported as unresolved (the waypoint still publishes with the transform direction); the reference is repaired like any other.
• A waypoint whose directionRef is a face of a placed assembly component is allowed — that is the in-context use the harness is for.

Where to find it

Offered in the Wire harness, Modeling and All workbenches. Type code WP. The context bar offers it when a face or an edge is selected, pre-filling directionRef with it.