Exploded Views/Instruction Sheets

I need to be able to create 'exploded' views for instruction sheets for each
project I create in SolidWorks. I'll need views that document each step
for the customer to follow to assemble the product. Think of
ready-to-assemble furniture... the first steps will only show a few parts,
and each additional step will add parts. A typical instruction sheet might
have 10 or so assembly views.

For those of you that migrated from Mechanical Desktop, I used MDT's scenes
to create the views I needed. MDT is set up in such a way that you can have
any number of scenes with as many parts as you choose to show in each view,
and they all can be exploded differently. It APPEARS that in SW you can
only have one Exploded view, which is a child configuraiton of the Default
configuration. Is that correct?

If it is, then can anybody recommend a working way to produce a number of
exploded views from an assembly? I've considered individual assembly files
with parts in their exploded (or partially assembled) states, but that seems
like a messy way to do it. I thought about using Animator, but I've never
used it and I'm not sure that it would do what I need.

Suggestions? Do any of you have experience with this sort of thing? I'm
open to anything. Thanks,

Brian

 

The only thing I can think of is to create a new config for each exploded
view. In SW 2005 there are some new options here aswell....You can select
subassembly parts, or re-use subassembly explodes. I haven't really played
with it myself yet so I can't tell You how well it works. From SW 2004 You
can automtically animate the exploded views......but You need to create the
exploded steps first.

Krister L

 

Hello Brian-
I'm not using 2005.
In 2004, you can create configurations that can have different exploded
views and that can hide/show different components. Once an exploded view is
created, you can "drag" it to another configuration.
In drawings, insert the view the assembly was exploded in. Then right click
in the view and select "show as exploded".
Also, in drawing views; right click the view, and select the tab to hide
components. Then you can select components to hide.
"Exploded Lines" are created in the assembly. They are 3-d sketches. They
look good. Look in the help file under "explode".
Best Regards,
Devon T. Sowell
www.3-ddesignsolutions.com

 

I was successfully able to create exploded views in different
configurations. I think that'll work. Thanks for the help!

Brian