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Cable Data

Four data items are required from the user to define a cable, namely

i.a cable number (for identification purposes)

ii.the cable start node

iii.the cable end node

iv.the cable length

The start and end nodes must be nodes of the finite element discretisation, defined using either of the methods described earlier. However, the nodal coordinates input for the cable start and end nodes are generally approximate locations only (with two exceptions), and merely constitute an initial guess or approximation to the actual position. The reason for this is that in general these actual positions are a function of the cable profile, which is not known a priori. This point is discussed in detail in Approximate Nodal Locations.