Combination of ground devices in wiring harness designs

One or more tangible computer readable media comprising computer executable instructions which, when executed by a computer, perform a method, comprising:

• allowing a user to place a first wiring harness design component within a wiring harness topology in a wiring harness design workspace in an electronic wiring harness design tool on the computer;
• allowing the user to place a first plurality of ground devices within the first wiring harness design component placed in the wiring harness topology;
• allowing the user to request an automatic ground combination;
• and
• in response to the user requesting an automatic ground combination, automatically applying at least one electronically stored ground combination rule to a first set of ground devices comprising a plurality of the first plurality of ground devices and automatically combining at least two of the first set of ground devices into a first combined ground device based at least in part on the applied at least one electronically stored ground combination rule;
• wherein each of the at least two of the first set of ground devices has a substantially equivalent property.

A computer program product comprising a wiring harness design tool, the wiring harness design tool comprising:

• a wiring harness workspace executed on a computer, wherein a wiring harness design can be implemented within the wiring harness workspace, the wiring harness design comprising at least one wiring harness design component comprising a plurality of ground devices;
• and
• an automatic ground combination tool operable to, in response to a user request for automatic ground combination, automatically combine at least two of the plurality of ground devices into a combined ground device according to at least one ground combination rule;
• wherein each of the at least two of the first set of ground devices has a substantially equivalent property.

A method, comprising:

• allowing a user to route a plurality of ground signals within a wiring harness design in a wiring harness design workspace on a computer;
• allowing the user to request an automatic ground signal combination;
• and
• in response to the user requesting an automatic ground signal combination, automatically applying at least one electronically stored ground combination rule to a first set of ground signals comprising a plurality of the plurality of ground signals and automatically combining at least two of the first set of ground signals into a first combined ground signal based at least in part on the applied at least one electronically stored ground combination rule;
• wherein each of the at least two of the first set of ground devices has a substantially equivalent property.

A method, comprising:

• allowing a user to place a first plurality of ground devices within a first ground slot in a wiring harness topology on a computer;
• allowing the user to request an automatic ground combination;
• in response to the user requesting an automatic ground combination, automatically applying a first electronically stored ground combination rule to the first plurality of ground devices;
• automatically applying a second electronically stored ground combination rule to a first set of ground devices comprising a plurality of the first plurality of ground devices, wherein the first set of ground devices is determined at least in part by results of automatically applying the first electronically stored ground combination rule to the first plurality of ground devices;
• and
• automatically combining at least two of the first set of ground devices into a first combined ground device based at least in part on results of automatically applying the second electronically stored ground combination rule;
• wherein each of the at least two of the first set of ground devices has a substantially equivalent property.