Internal Connectivity

The model elements above enable the explicit modelling of the internal electrical connectivity of E/E-Components in the VEC. The ConnectionSpecification, a core concept in the VEC is used to represent the logical internal connectivity between PinComponents within an EEComponentSpecification. For more details of the ConnectionSpecification see "Connectivity / Connection Specification".

The ConnectionSpecification should be co-located with the EEComponentSpecification in the DocumentVersion that defines the E/E-component. It contains a single ComponentNode representing the E/E-component itself. The HousingComponents and PinComponents are represented by ComponentConnectors and ComponentPorts on this ComponentNode. The internal connectivity is represented by Connections. If the E/E-component contains integrated subcomponents, those are represented as childNodes of the ComponentNode of the E/E-component.

Traceability Links

To ensure semantic consistency and enable model traceability, dedicated references are introduced between the following elements:

1. EEComponentSpecification → ComponentNode
2. HousingComponent → ComponentConnector
3. PinComponent → ComponentPort

These links allow navigation between the specification of a component and its internal connectivity representation.

Representation of Physical Properties

The ConnectionSpecification is the layer to describe logical connectivity, and it does not contain any physical properties (such as conducting properties of a Connection). However, it is possible to define physical properties with PartOrUsageRelatedSpecifications and Roles and link this information with the logical connectivity (see Wiring Specification).

1. If the physical entity is a component (e.g. a fuse) it is represented as a ChildNode of the ComponentNode representing the E/E-component.
2. If it is a conductor of any kind, it is represented by a Connection.
3. A PartUsageSpecification and a PartStructureSpecification is added to the definition of the E/E-component. If the subcomponents should be represented as actual PartOccurrences, instead of PartUsages, a CompositionSpecification is used instead of the PartUsageSpecification.
4. For each element with physical properties a PartUsage (with corresponding PartOrUsageRelatedSpecification and Role) is created. This includes traceability links to the corresponding ConnectionSpecification elements (e.g. WireElementReference -> Connection, FuseRole -> ComponentNode (a childNode)).

This approach ensures a separation of concerns between logical connectivity and physical embodiment while maintaining full traceability.