Continuity testing establishes that all branches of a node are connected and are within the parameter determined. Therefore, if the Continuity test is successful, the overall circuit can be considered to be wired correctly. However, this does not mean there are no short circuits between the various independent nodal paths. Therefore, to compliment the Continuity test, Shorts is used to ensure that there are not any unwanted interconnectivity between the nodes within the UUT's circuit. Shorts has been designed to provide a very fast testing mechanism to check interconnectivity across all the Unit's circuits under test.
Providing that the UUT first passes continuity testing using the default Test Profile, it is more efficient to just test node to node for any shorts or partial shorts rather than testing each wire in a node to every other wire or node. If, on initial testing, a given node is not shorted to the node it is tested against, those two nodes form a common node to be tested against a third node, and so on. Any failures are reported as a short between a given node and the master-accumulating node (or Cluster). This methodology is very fast in establishing it there is a short, and if a short is found then a Trace test must then be carried out to diagnose the failure in more detail.
