Any tips for Exploded View in Solidworks?
I have a medium size assembly file in SolidWorks (50 items; 200+ parts total), and I'm making an exploded view for the assembly drawing. I've roughly positioned the parts in their exploded location, and now I'm fine-tuning the locations to space the parts properly. Often when I move one set of parts, previously moved parts will jump out of position. Originally I just dragged the parts in each step. I've tried editing the step, typing in a new distance, applying and OK, but parts are not staying where I want them. The SolidWorks help files haven't been useful. Does anyone have any tips for locking the exploded positions? Thanks
4 Answers
It sounds like you may have moved multiple parts in a single step. Nothing wrong with that, but as I recall, it does tend to then consider those parts grouped together.
I always tried to move a single piece per step of the explosion process, unless it was something like a series of fasteners. I'd move all those in a single step if they were all in the same plane (like lug nuts holding on a wheel).
Fixing it will take one of two paths:
1. Delete the exploded view and start over (or make a new exploded view and start over)
2. Work step by step through the explosion steps to see which one(s) are affecting multiple parts.
You also have to be careful with sub assemblies. I believe I've seen a toggle option to treat them as a single piece, or as a group of individual parts.
Thanks for the response.
You are right, that most of my steps include more than one part. (This makes it easy to keep them in alignment when I adjust their positions.) And some parts are moved with 2 or more steps. With this assembly, I'm not sure it's worth the effort to explode one part at a time. I'll try to attach a picture tomorrow.
I did delete the exploded view and started over - twice today. The first re-do; I only typed in distances and use Apply, Done and OK for each step, but parts still jumped back when re-positioned. In the second re-do, I only dragged parts to position and re-position them, but again with they wouldn't stay put. My conclusion: it doesn't matter which way parts are exploded.
When discussing this with a co-worker, we had similar problems with a very simple assembly.
I learned (the hard way) about the sub-assembly option.
Solidworks allows the bursting of already exploded subassemblies that help you when using this feature. It is much easier to find and in addition it is usually a good thing to split the large assembly into subassemblies.
Use the features in the red rectangle.
Also, maybe you could use more than one exploded view.
