How Zorowire calculates
Cut lengths, Zoro checks, quotes, engineering checks and 1:1 printing — what each one does, where its numbers come from, and what Zorowire does not do.
updated 2026-10-31One entry, one frozen revision
A harness is entered once: connectors and their cavities, wires, splices, branch lengths and coverings. Everything Zorowire prints — the quote, the formboard, the cut list, the BOM, labels and pinouts — is derived from that one revision by the same functions, so the documents cannot disagree with each other.
Releasing a revision freezes it. A customer change becomes the next revision, and Zorowire shows what changed in the inputs (a wire, a length, a part) and in the results (cut lengths, BOM lines, the price). A revision with errors cannot be released.
Cut lengths
Each wire's cut length is built up in this order:
- the path through the harness: the sum of the branch segments the wire runs along;
- an allowance at each end, from the dimension point to the termination, strip length included (per connector or splice);
- service loops, where the drawing asks for them;
- then slack, twist take-up for twisted pairs, and rounding, as the shop sets them.
A length the customer fixed replaces the calculated one, and Zorowire checks that it still reaches. The cores of one cable share the cable's longest length. A wire with no route through the segments gets no length and a finding instead of a guess.
Zoro checks
Before anything is printed, Zorowire checks the data for mistakes that cost a rework: two items with the same name, a wire that ends nowhere, a cavity that does not exist in its housing or holds too much, a terminal that does not fit the wire size or the cavity, a sealed housing with a missing seal or plug, a route that does not exist, a fixed length that cannot reach, a twisted pair whose wires do not run together, a splice with too few ends, and parts without a part number.
Each finding is an error (blocks the release), a warning or a note, and points at the row to fix. The checks look at consistency of the data you entered; they do not judge whether the design is right.
Quotes
A quote is built from the revision's operation counts — cuts, strips, crimps, seals, splices, twists, tapes, labels, tests — multiplied by the shop's labour table, plus material from the shop's own prices:
- labour per harness = Σ (count × seconds per operation) × (1 + the shop's allowance), plus per-batch work (setup, changeovers) divided by the batch quantity;
- setup is spread over each quantity break, so the price per unit falls as the quantity rises;
- one-off engineering (NRE) is shown on its own line, never hidden in the unit price;
- then scrap and the shop's margin.
Zorowire ships a default labour table so a new shop can quote on day one. It has 55 operations; 52 of the times are our estimates, written down with their reasoning, and 3 come from a published table. They are defaults, not standards: the quote lists every default still in use, because the shop's own times are what make the price right.
A missing price is a finding, never a zero hidden in a total. In the Workspace, quotes are issued only with the shop's own hourly rate: until it is set, the rate field shows an example.
Engineering checks
The engineering module estimates current capacity per segment (with ambient temperature, bundle, altitude and enclosure derating), conductor temperature, voltage drop at the load, whether a fuse protects its wire, contact currents and splice balance. Every result names its table or formula, shows its assumptions and margin, and is labelled: “Engineering check — verify against the manufacturer's data and the applicable standard.”
The tables are published values: wire makers' free-air tables for vehicle wire (Anixter by default, Müller FLRY-B), bundle factors from VDE 0298-4 as published by a cable maker, NASA EEE-INST-002 and FAA AC 43.13-1B for aircraft and drones, and published excerpts of IEC 60364-5-52, IEC 60204-1, NEC 310.16 and ABYC E-11 for panels and boats. Where no published table exists (125 °C XLPE wire), the result is marked as an estimate and asks for the wire maker's rating.
Current and voltage-drop checker →Choosing a fuse for a wire →
Printing the formboard at 1:1
The formboard PDF is drawn at exact scale and tells the PDF viewer not to scale it. Every tile carries a 100 mm check ruler and registration marks, so the sheets line up and a steel rule shows at once whether the printer kept the scale.
A calibration sheet measures your printer; the correction it gives (horizontal and vertical, separately) can be saved per printer and is applied whenever that printer is picked.
What Zorowire does not do
- It does not certify, approve or state compliance with any standard or regulation (ISO, SAE, IEC, UL, NFPA, ABYC, IPC/WHMA-A-620 or any other). The engineering module is a calculation aid; the shop remains responsible for its designs.
- It does not control machines. Cut lists and machine files are exports your machine's own software imports.
- It does not design harnesses for you: the checks look for inconsistencies in what you entered, not for a better design.