Fact Sheet: Vehicle Electric Container (VEC)

General

Short description/ Transmitted information	Comprehensive universal data format for the complete electrical network Capable to build a tool-independent digital product model supporting the design paradigm of a “logical mock-up” (LMU)
Application scope	Data Exchange Collaboration Archiving
Goals	Reduction of design effort while complexity rises Change management with full traceability Independence from tool vendors
Promoting bodies	VDA prostep ivip Association
Type	VDA Recommendation prostep ivip Rcommendation
IT Standard classification	Interoperability Standard Modeling Standard Integration Standard
Data Format	Text Format (ASCII / XML)
Additional available resources	Implementation Guidelines Recommended Practices Testing Files see ECAD-Wiki: ecad-wiki.prostep.org VEC Version 2.0.2 \| ECAD WIKI (prostep.org) Whitepapers Best Practices Promotion Day (WEKA Bordnetzkongress Landshut, VEC-Day)
Relevant prostep ivip project groups	ECAD Implementor Forum (prostep.org)

Positioning of VEC in V-Model

Details

The VDA recommendation 4968 “Vehicle Electric Container (VEC)” defines an information model, a data dictionary, and an XML schema derived from and compliant to the model.

The intention of the model was to cover a wide range of use cases and application scenarios. For this reason the specification had to be kept generic in some degree and in some aspects. However, for specific scenarios and / or use cases a more detailed description on “how the different pieces fit together” is possible.

To avoid dialects in the different VEC implementations, further guidelines or recommendations are necessary. This collection of implementation guidelines contributes to the unambiguous interpretation of the VEC standard. For various wiring harness definition or electrical system aspects and scenarios the correct instantiation is shown and specific hints for correct usage are given. Further information and specification documents can be found here: http://ecad-wiki.prostep.org/ doku.php?id=tutorials:vec:start

The ECAD IF performs test rounds with implementing system vendors to allow an easy access to and assure an accurate and compatible implementation of the VEC model.

Relevance and Benefit for MBSE

Comprehensive universal data format for the complete electrical network
Capable to build a tool-independent digital product model supporting the design paradigm of a “logical mock-up” (LMU)
Enables traceability processes on digital representation of the electrical network
Enables a bidirectional transformation between the design domain and the manufacturing domain, which reduces the effort of design change propagation

Risks and Impediments

What happens if VEC will not be implemented and industrialized?

Tool-independent digital product model supporting the design paradigm of a “logical mock-up” (LMU) will fail
Dependencies from vendor-specific solutions will increase