Onshape Exploded View Drawing: Easy Guide

• Onshape, a cloud-native CAD platform, offers robust tools for creating detailed technical documentation. Dassault Systèmes, the parent company of Onshape, integrates sophisticated features that enable users to generate comprehensive exploded views. These exploded views simplify complex assemblies, making them easier to understand. Therefore, mastering the creation of an **Onshape exploded view drawing** is crucial for effective communication among design teams. This guide provides an easy approach to creating these drawings, ensuring that even newcomers can efficiently utilize Onshape’s capabilities, thus maximizing the potential of the platform in any design workflow, like those seen within the innovative projects at MIT’s design labs.

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Crafting Exploded View Drawings in Onshape: A Simplified Approach

Creating exploded view drawings is essential for effectively communicating how components assemble in a design. These drawings offer a clear visual breakdown, which is vital for manufacturing, assembly instructions, and product documentation. This guide provides a streamlined process for generating effective exploded view drawings using Onshape.

• Introduction to Exploded Views: Begin by explaining what an exploded view drawing is and its purpose. Who is the audience for this article, and why are they looking to create an exploded view? Briefly touch upon why exploded views are important in mechanical design and engineering.

Before diving into the specific steps, cover the essential prerequisite – having a fully assembled model in Onshape. This seems obvious, but is crucial to highlight upfront.

1. Preparing Your Onshape Assembly:
   • Finalizing the Assembly: Ensure all parts are correctly positioned and mated within the assembly. It’s best practice to name the assembly, and the individual parts, in a logical manner.
   • Checking for Errors: Review the assembly for any interferences or issues that might hinder the exploded view creation.
2. Accessing the Exploded View Tool: Guide readers to the correct location of the exploded view tool within the Onshape interface. Include screenshots to visually demonstrate this step.

Next, explain the core process of creating the exploded view.

3. Creating Your First Exploded View:
   • Defining Explode Steps: This is the heart of the process. Explain how to select components and define the direction and distance of their displacement. Break down the explanation of explode steps by using detailed screenshots of the Onshape environment.
   • Understanding Transformation Options: Clarify the options available for moving components, such as linear and rotational transformations.
   • Step-by-Step Disassembly: Show how to systematically move components away from each other to create a clear and understandable exploded view.

Elaborate on how to customize and refine the exploded view for maximum clarity.

• Customizing the Exploded View:
  • Adjusting Explode Distances: Describe how to fine-tune the distances between components for optimal visual separation.
  • Modifying Transformation Directions: Explain how to change the direction of movement for individual parts.
  • Adding Explode Lines: Detail how to add explode lines or trail lines to visually connect the exploded components to their original positions in the assembly. Use clear, concise terminology like “trail lines” instead of complex jargon.
  • Saving Exploded Views: Show users how to save named exploded views so that they can quickly recall specific explode states.

Discuss incorporating the exploded view into a drawing.

• Integrating into Drawings:
  • Creating a Drawing: Explain how to create a new drawing in Onshape.
  • Inserting the Exploded View: Walk through inserting the exploded view into the drawing. Explain how to select the exploded view configuration.
  • Adding Balloons and Bill of Materials (BOM): Describe adding balloons to the exploded view to identify each component. Further, show how to automatically generate a BOM that corresponds to the exploded view. Provide tips on customizing the BOM.
  • Annotation and Dimensions: Briefly cover how to add annotations and dimensions to the drawing.

Address potential problems that might arise during the process and offer solutions.

• Troubleshooting Common Issues:
  • Overlapping Components: Suggest strategies for dealing with overlapping components in the exploded view.
  • Complex Assemblies: Offer tips for simplifying exploded views of complex assemblies. Consider suggesting the use of sub-assemblies.
  • Performance Issues: Address potential performance issues with large assemblies and suggest workarounds.

So there you have it! Creating an Onshape exploded view drawing doesn’t have to be a headache. With these steps, you’ll be generating clear and informative exploded views in no time. Happy designing!