Assembly diagrams - how are they done?

I'd like to make a picture of something I've made along the lines of the assembly diagrams we see in machine tool manuals. For example, a lathe apron:

My thing is much simpler but my question is: how are these diagrams produced? The above looks like pure draughtmanship to me. But maybe there are computationally assisted ways for the artistically challenged.

Robin.

Alibre calls it BOM - Bill of materials

The more advanced versions have it

.

Way back in the mid 1980s I did some, a little simpler than that one, using Autocad 2.5 [or was it 2.6 ?] for DOS

… all done on the isometric grid, it was slow but quite satisfying work.

MichaelG.

Many CAD packages allow you to "expload" an assembly which moves the components apart in a similar way. Alibre pro & Expert actually call it Expload and you can also get a BOM (Bill of Materials) which would be a list of all the parts in the exploaded view.

Alternatively you could just assemble them with suitable offsets

Pencil and paper way is to draw each part a set distance from the others, the skill is in the layout.

Fusion 360 has such a facility, it's called an Exploded View, which is part of the Animation facility.

Just to expand a little on what has already been mentioned. In 3D CAD, the Exploded View is created and edited in the 3D Assembly workspace. Explosion directions are typically set by the assembly constraints that hold parts together. There may well be an 'Auto-Explode' option, the resulting view can be refined/adjusted manually.

Once the Exploded View is to your liking, it can be added into a 2D drawing. Callout numbers can be added based upon a Bill of Materials (generated automatically from the Assembly).

Some systems allow the explosion to be split into steps, and exported to an animated PDF 'manual' - think of a 'workshop manual' with animated 3D colour images showing assembly or dis-assembly steps. Instructions and animated images are stepped through under control of whoever is viewing the PDF.

Bills Of Materials predate CAD by a decade or so. They were used from the mid-1970s as the structural elements of Materials Requirements Planning (MRP) systems, later Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II) systems. These latter would include Bills Of Resource with routing details for capacity planning.

Full explsions would be represented by Indented Bills, opening up each in-house-made component or subassembly progressively until the lowest-level bought-in raw materials or piece-parts were reached.

In 35 years working on these systems, I never saw a comprehensively good one - though I was involved in some useful improvements to a couple of 'em.

We ad it tough, isometric drawing templates and cut and paste (Scissors and glue), oh how the compuwter has made everyone an instant draughty.

Regards Ian.

You thought twice before putting Rotring to film. It's not a click of the undo button to change once the ink is down.

Place I worked at in the eighties had tracers specifically employed to create exploded views for technical manuals as well as images for advertising. They were the first to be made redundant when the decline took hold, then draughtsmen were expected to do something similar. Eventually 3D cad systems enabled it to be almost automatic, but it still takes some thought and skill to get the right look and pairing of parts. While the cad systems I worked with would separate parts you had to move them manually to the side as needed. To me if you can read a drawing an exploded view is unnecessary it is most useful for the spare part suppliers who you wouldn’t expect to be able to read a drawing.

Those here who use an iPad might be impressed by this free App from Engino

**LINK**

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/engino-kidcad-3d-viewer/id962175208

They produce educational construction kits [ snap-together plastic mostly ], and that App provides step-by step assembly instructions animated in 3D

MichaelG.

I had a squirrel with Alibre Atom and it's a bit fiddly but you can use the basic drawing function for a viewing angle, the notes bit for numbering and lines, then save as a PDF

Then use a PDF editor to put in the key list

***THIS*** video shows how simple it is to create an exploded, annotated, view in Fusion 360. Even the free version can do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ysyxn5PbzU0

Thanks for replies and apologies for not acknowledging sooner - I got a bit sidetracked.

I should have said that I have only Linux machines. I was enthused by the video Gary Wooding linked to and went so far as to find a series of intelligible Fusion tutorial videos only to discover that Fusion isn't available for Unix. D'oh! Same for Alibre Atom and the majority of 3D CAD stuff out there it seems.

I did see a comment on a 'best 10 CAD programs for Linux' article claiming that Fusion can be used under WINE but from my experiences with WINE I doubt it.

I have FreeCAD but don't get on with it.

I'll probably end up doing it by hand or not at all.

My Rotrings dried up years ago - as a schoolboy I would submit homework written with a Rotring at perhaps 3pt just to annoy the 'masters'. They couldn't do me for it, nothing in the rules! Nowadays I like Pigma Micron fineliners - lovely pens.

Robin.

Why not try it? Fusion is free to download and try. If you decide that you like it, the restrictions in the free hobbyist version are unlikely to cause you problems.

Though I love it dearly FreeCAD doesn't have the features needed for exploded diagrams yet. Not recommended for this purpose.

Fusion running under Wine looks good though. This project is actively supporting it. Lots of ifs and buts though.

The main reason I still have Windows is to run CAD. Like it or loath it, commercial software is almost always written for Windows, then Apple, and just maybe Linux as an afterthought. It's easier to install on Windows and more likely to work.

Wine is good provided the Windows application is a little old fashioned, but not if the code pulls tricks or uses new features.

Dave

I only use old Windows stuff, and ONLY the Pro versions

Win7 64bit and 8.1 64 bit run most stuff fine and the "update" process can be disabled

Never used an antivirus either, in 20+ years

You can download the software anywhere, the bit you must get a hold of is the key

Nowadays I would just get an old laptop with it preloaded from the bay etc

Edited By Ady1 on 02/09/2023 11:22:54

Thanks for further replies.

I had a look at project on GitHub and it seems that although possible it's not trivial to get Fusion working under Wine. Lots of ifs and buts indeed!

I can (astonishingly) get a refurbished second hand Win 10 machine for £68. 4-core i5, 3.1GHz, 8GB RAM which seems to fulfil the system requirements for Fusion.

I've struggled with CAD for years (on and off, mostly off) and always given up - it's easier to draw by hand. I lit on these tutorials for Fusion and they seem to make sense to me. I don't know if it's the logic of the program itself or the way the guy explains it, but I have new hope.

Robin.

I have been there .

Have you tried Onshape? Free for us if non profit, web based but not a problem for me, works quick on my simple efforts, not sure about complex ones. Does it for me

Just looked it has an explode feature?

Pete

Edited By Pete White on 03/09/2023 12:17:33

Thanks Pete. I've signed up and have started working through their tutorials. Could be ideal!

Robin.