Creating Exploded Views in Pro/DESKTOP®

To show how parts are assembled in assembly drawings, use exploded views, which are easily created in Pro/DESKTOP® using configurations. Here’s how to do it.

1. Once your assembly is complete, you are ready to create your exploded assembly. Your final assembly will be the “None” configuration. For your exploded view, you will need to create a New Configuration. Go to Tools, Configurations.

2. Select New Family and name the family “Explode.”

3. Select New Configuration and name it “Explode.”

4. Toggle from Structure to Values, where you will select the assembly constraints to explode.

5. Select Properties. This is where you select what parts to explode.

6. From the left column, select the assembly conditions to use in the Explode configuration and move them to the right. After entering a value, select OK.

7. Select the Configuration pull-down, and select Explode. This toggles your assembly to its exploded state. Once you see the location of your parts, you can go back into the configurations and change the values until the view shows the assembly as required.

Final Exploded Assembly

8. To dynamically update the exploded values, go to the Tools, Dimension slider. Select the value and slide to a new value.

9. After you have created your exploded assembly, orient the view as required for the drawing. Open your final assembly drawing on the Drawing, Add Modeling View, From Window.

Final Assembly Drawing with Exploded View

Tips for Exploding Views

• Rename your constraints so they are easily recognized in the Configurations window.

• Try different values for your configurations, using the slider bar to change values dynamically.

Bobbe Singer is an application specialist at Beyond The Board, Inc. and chair of the Pro/DESKTOP Technical Committee. She can be reached by e-mail at bsqd@beyondtb.com.

Bobbe will be presenting "Converting 2D AutoCAD to 3D Pro/DESKTOP" at the PTC/USER World Event in Atlanta, Georgia, USA in June.