I have been tasked with improving the quality of our process instructions (poor at best) and assembly drawings (non-existant). For anyone who needs to produce quality assembly drawings using Solidworks... Any advice?
What I am doing, but am finding tedious, is to create a configuration or multiple configurations with exploded views and hidden parts to outline the various assembly steps. Is this typical?
TIA
VFR
Yup, that's how I did it. And, buy a couple Lego kits just to study the instructions. If you can live up to that quality, you're golden. You might want to borrow some 3D arrows from Paul Salvador's site, too:
Try working backwards, stripping the model down layer by layer, hiding components and then save them as Jpeg or PDF. When you put the JPEG's together in reverse order, you get a nice "comic strip" of how the assembly should go together with minimum hassle, similar to the Lego instructions. This method is fast and dirty, but allows your user to get a good idea of what is going on. You can expand on the "comic strip" using detaild assembly drawings, again, SW2004 seems to have better flexibility and speed at creating drawings. You can then do exploded shots for the critical steps. The quality of JPEGS from SW2004 seems far better than 2003 - especially imported surfaces. I guess that you could put the shots together in somethin like Flash to create an animation showing the assembly being built - cool for your sales people! Best of luck Deri
Hi VFR,
I have recommended this to some of my partners.
Let me know your thoughts and what you come up with.
Best Regards,
Mike Lamora
VFR wrote:
Mike,
I was very impressed with the idea. Got the demo and will check in later.
Many thanks for the excellent po> Hi VFR,
Some years ago I went through the same process, updating process planning documentation and assy drgs etc.
In addition to using exploded views etc, I found that the best method of detailing how a product was assembled was to use a digital camera and take a series of photo's as the product moves down the production line.
I then used Quark (but I guess you could use Word etc) to add annotation and produce hard copy sheets. I found this method better than using SolidWorks models alone as it allowed me to show how to position components, jigs, fixtures, special tools, hands etc when building the product.
I hope this helps,
Kev Parkin
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