DOCUMENTING A HARNESS DESIGN

During the Club level Wiring Harness design and construction course, an Excel file is presented (uploaded) as a template for documenting the harness design. I don't however believe that there is sufficient background from the course to understand how to complete the documentation for the harness. Perhaps I do not understand the purpose of this document. I am trying to use it as a guide as to how to cut the wires that make up the harness.

The course explains the "Star" grounding concept and that the Chassis can be one point on this star. It goes on to inform that one should never ground to both the Engine and the Chassis. I'm wondering why this Excel file has so many grounding options. There is Engine Ground 1 and Engine Ground 2. Then there is Chassis Ground 1 and Chassis Ground 2. No example was provided as to why one would want multiple Engine and Chassis grounds or how these sites might be selected.

The headings for the column are Location, Pin, Conductor and Destination.

"Location" - seems undefined. It appears to refer to the location on a connector or device such as a relay (i.e. pin number) but the next column is "Pin"? Might not this best refer to a device and connector part number?

"Pin" - appears to be - not the pin number but a pin or socket's physical attributes. I don't understand the significance of this. Might it be more explicit to provide the pin/socket part number?

"Conductor" is clearly the color and gauge of the wire.

There is no column for wire length - something that appears to be crucial to the building of the harness. I have added this column. I think there should also be a column for a "Splice" where the length along the wire is indicated where an intersecting wire is attached.

"Destination" is a device and pin number. Again, it would probably be helpful to have the pin or socket part number and the connector part number so there is a complete understanding of what's happening on either end of the wire.

It should probably include a wire number as well, because each wire is a separate assembly. That would make things easier to trace.