In this Solid Solutions video I'm gonna show you how to add
expolded views and bills of materials to your SOLIDWORKS
assembly from inside the online trial. To access the files used
in this example from the online trial,
select the open icon on the SOLIDWORKS toolbar and navigate
to the C drive, photon user, documents, SOLIDWORKS product
trial, sample content, mouse assembly and double click the
assembly file.
When we first open the mouse assembly we can see that the
buttons have been made transparent allowing us to see
internally.
This transparency can be quickly toggled on or off by using this
arrow in the feature manager which gives us information on
each parts visibility, display style, appearance and
transparency.
We can select the icon beside the mouse buttons to make it
opaque.
Another way of examining the internals of an assembly.
It also helps show how the assembly should be added
together by creating an exploded.
To do this we temporarily move components in the order that
they would be assembled or disassembled and save their
positioning in an easily accessible view which we can
also animate or bring into a drawing. To create an exploded
view
select the icon in the assembly tab of the Command Manager.
This will bring up the explode property manager, the steps can
then be created to move components.
To do this,
select the first component to move.
In this case we'll select the buttons. Our three default axes
will appear and we can use the arrows to translate the buttons.
We're going to translate up in the y direction by dragging and
dropping the arrow.
When we do this the information will fill in the explode
property manager and we can fine tune the distance or degree of
rotation if required and then press done to complete the step.
Multiple components can also be exploded at the same time, on
the underside of the mouse
there are four contact pads. I'm going to select each one of
these and then use the arrow to move them down in the negative y
direction.
And again select done on the property manager. Next,
the battery cover on the underside of the mouse can be
selected and as it is inserted from the side.
I'm going to explode it in the negative Z direction.
Previously we had completed the explode steps by selecting done
in the property manager but there are quicker alternatives.
When a part is dropped into position a mice icon beside the
cursor appears with a blue arrow over the right mouse button.
This means that if I right click now the explode step will be
completed.
This can help save on mouse movement, some parts are not
best suited to using the default X, Y and Z axes as a direction
for their explode.
If this is the case we can drag the manipulator onto different
faces or edges and use those for reference direction.
Selecting the mouse wheel I can see that the default axes are
shown as normal.
There is a white ball in the center where they meet and I
click and drag this to an edge the explode direction will be
along the edge, of normal to that face. I'll drop the
manipulator onto the edge of the wheel housing, drag the arrow,
and I've completed step.
The final two components which need to be exploded are the
bottom housing and the on/off switch on the underside of the
mouse.
Previously we have exploded multiple components at the same
distance in one step.
However we can also explode them in the same direction by
different amounts.
To do this.
Select the option auto space components from the explode
property manager with this selected we can drag the Y axis
arrow to see the components moving but at different rates.
When we drop each components explode
distance can be fine tuned using the individual arrows. Once this
step is completed all of the necessary parts have been
exploded.
However if any changes need to be made this can be done from
the explode steps box on the property manager.
In here selecting any step gives full list of options which can
be modified. The order of the explode steps can also be
changed.
For example if I preferred the mouse will to
second I can select and drag explode step four to below
explode
step one. When happy with any modifications
use the green tick to accept the explode.
The exploded view is stored in the configuration manager under
the default configuration.
From here we can right click and collapse or explode the
assembly.
We can also animate the collapse or explode to create a useful
video showing how the part is to be assembled or disassembled.
These videos can be saved as various extensions including MP4
and AVI. With our explode complete
we may wish to show it in a 2D drawing.
This can easily be done by selecting the arrow beside the
new icon then Make drawing from Part/Assembly, using the A3
sheet when prompted. The view palette will automatically
appear to the right of the screen so default views of the
assembly created got used to the drawn drag and drop from the
view palette to the sheet.
We've added an isometric view to this drawing which by default
uses the drawing sheet scale.
We can modify this scale to 1 from the status bar on the
bottom right screen cause there's already been an exploded
view created the checkbox show in exploded or model breaks it
is available and our view property manager.
We can check this change the view.
Next we can add a bill of materials from the annotations
tab under the tables dropdown. For us to select the drawn
videos which will be the exploded view before using the
green tech on the property manager,
accept the BOM options and clicking on the sheet to place.
The BOM can then be modified, for example the column titled
part number may be clearer if titled name. So we can double
click and change.
We may also want to show quantity of the parts before the
description and this can be done by dragging the columns across.
The descriptions themselves
currently only have a default value.
To change this to something more meaningful, right click on a
part in the BOM and choose to open. Once a part is open we can
select the file properties icon from the toolbar, then the
custom tab, and change the value for the description property.
When we okay
the change and use the Windows drop down and navigate back to
the drawing.
We can see that the value has updated, the BOM columns can
then be resized if necessary.
The final step is to add balloons to indicate which item
number
in the BOM is related to each component in the assembly.
This could be done by selecting the balloon tool and manually
adding to each component.
But auto balloon can also be used to quickly add a balloon
for each component at the same time.
When auto balloon is selected, a preview of balloons to be added
can be seen.
There are various options in the property manager one of which is
to change the layout of the balloons.
Another useful option is the ability to order the balloon
sequentially.
This will renumber the balloons and reorder the BOM meaning
the numbers are ordered in a clockwise direction. You can
then accept the command. Magnetic lines are also created
which enable us to drag and move multiple balloons at once.
This enables us to quickly finalize the layout of our
drawing. Thank you for watching this quick introduction to
Exploded Views and BOMS using the SOLIDWORKS online trial.