Any referenced datasets can be downloaded from "Module downloads" in the module overview.
Transcript
00:06
After completing this lesson, you'll be able to create an exploded view of the assembly, capture snapshots of stages of assembly,
00:14
create output for use in publishing tools, and export an animation of the assembly process.
00:21
A presentation file can be used to generate exploded views of the assembly.
00:26
As part of the process,
00:28
the changes made to the assembly are captured in the Storyboard at the bottom of the screen as events over the course of time.
00:36
These events can overlap and they can change in duration.
00:41
You also have the ability to capture snapshots and save those snapshot views in the files as well.
00:48
If you move the play head through the process of assembly, you can capture snapshots of the partial assembly or disassembly process...
01:01
And at any time, create a new snapshot view.
01:04
This snapshot view can be exported for reuse in technical publishing documents.
01:11
The process of creating an animation begins with creating a Storyboard.
01:16
The Storyboard can be clean with a fresh start,
01:19
or start from the end of the previous Storyboard so you can create a series of exploded views.
01:24
We'll start with a clean Storyboard.
01:28
This will give us our complete view using scene 1.
01:33
It's also possible to create a new scene using the same assembly file.
01:40
We'll go to Options and change the Design View to be of the Gear Train.
01:47
We can also choose whether or not changes made to the Gear Train view representation in the assembly,
01:53
will affect the views that we create in this presentation file.
01:57
If we want that we can leave this associative.
02:01
We'll click Okay and open to generate a new scene.
02:08
This new scene will give us the components that are visible in the design view.
02:13
We can begin by creating events that move the components around called Tweaks.
02:18
We'll start with the backside of the pulley.
02:23
Using the Tweak Components tool in the panel, or with a right click and using Tweak Components in the Marking menu,
02:29
I'll select the first component that I want to tweak.
02:34
It will pick up its coordinates from the component itself, though we can override how those coordinates are established.
02:42
We can also set a duration for a specific event or just keep using that duration.
02:48
I'll use 0.8 as we create additional events.
02:52
First, I'll grab the arrow and move the nut out roughly 2.5 inches.
02:58
Then holding control, I'll select a washer and begin dragging it out roughly 2.5 inches.
03:07
After creating the first move on the hex jam nut, it created an event that ended just before 1 second. That was 0.8 seconds long.
03:18
As I hold control and click the spring, it will record the second event that I made moving both the circular washer and the jam nut.
03:27
Let's continue doing this, moving each of these around 2.5 inches and picking up the components that are mounted to this shaft.
03:39
I'll make this move just a little longer, and then pick up the friction material...
03:51
And then the hub.
03:55
After beginning to move the hub, I want to click Okay to record that event,
04:02
and start a new Tweak Components event for moving this pin out of the way before I begin gathering up the bearing.
04:11
I'll slide the pin out a distance, click Okay, and start the Tweak Components tool again.
04:20
I can safely relocate and reselect the components that I've been choosing, and it will just create a new event.
04:31
And then let's move the bearing off the end of the shaft.
04:35
Let's click Okay for now.
04:40
Let's make three more tweaks, and then we'll pause for a moment and take a look at what we have.
04:45
First, let's grab the R ring that retains the bearing.
04:48
Move it out, then grab the bearing...
04:54
And then we'll grab the gear...
04:59
And slide it out as well.
05:02
Okay.
05:04
Now we have a fair number of tweaks.
05:06
In fact, if we resize the Storyboards panel, we can see all of the events that we have.
05:13
We can rewind back to the beginning and click Play, and it will go through the events on the screen as we made them.
05:25
At any point, we can go back and make tweaks.
05:28
So for example, moving the hub, I moved it out a short distance.
05:34
Let's edit that tweak and move it out just a little farther to give more clarity around the tweak of the pin.
05:45
Now when the bearing and all the other components begin moving, I want that to coincide with the movement of the pin.
05:55
So by holding Control and clicking the Events, I can change when that event occurs.
06:04
Now if we go back and play again...
06:10
We can see that pin slides out just in time before the bearing comes through.
06:16
Now the next thing I notice is picking a point in the timeline and beginning from there, all of that happens,
06:23
and then we have our bearing and retainer from below.
06:28
But what if we were to take and again using control to select these events...
06:36
Let's move these forward in time, so that they coincide with the motion in the upper shaft.
06:45
There, that works pretty well.
06:48
Now let's take a quick look at the other side and we'll just make a couple of changes.
06:57
Let's take our timeline and move it back to where we're starting, so we have a good reference.
07:02
Let's again tweak.
07:05
We'll grab the key, pull it out of the shaft, start another tweak components,
07:12
begin moving the retaining ring out, then both bearings...
07:20
And then a distance out let's drop off the upper bearing and continue on with the lower bearing and retaining ring.
07:31
Now let's take a look at that in total.
07:40
All right, that looks pretty good.
07:45
Now at the beginning of our timeline, this is a good view of the assembly.
07:49
It gives us a clear view of the hub,
07:52
and we want to be able to explain to people that beneath the hub is the friction material pressing up against the pulley.
07:59
So let's go ahead and let's record a snapshot of that assembled view,
08:04
and then let's move the animation to the end,
08:08
and get a good point of view of the assembly where we can clearly see all of the components.
08:16
Let's do a quick snapshot of that, and let's go ahead and make sure that we end up in this point of view in an animation,
08:24
so we'll capture the camera at this point in time.
08:30
So if we move back to the beginning of the assembly...
08:36
Let's move this Storyboard down a little bit so we can see a little more clearly.
08:42
We'll start with this point of view and then roughly at one-half second,
08:49
we want to pivot around to where we can see the nut beginning to be removed,
08:56
and let's capture that view.
08:60
Let's go back to the beginning.
09:02
Let's move the play head to the scratch area where we can establish an initial point of view of the assembly.
09:10
Capture that camera in the scratch board. All right, and then let's play.
09:15
It transitions over here, and then those components start to go out of frame before we can clearly see what's happening.
09:21
So let's go back to the point where everything starts to get stretched out a little too far.
09:27
Zoom out a little bit. Capture the camera again.
09:32
Let's stretch this out just by hovering near one edge, and clicking and dragging to lengthen that transition.
09:40
And then as we get to where the backside is being animated,
09:45
let's change the point of view again to see what changes are being made on this end.
09:51
Do another capture camera.
09:54
Extend that out and let's rewind again.
09:59
Hit play, and see what the animation looks like.
10:05
Okay. Needs to go out just a little bit farther at the end.
10:09
So let's move the play head to the very end...
10:14
Zoom out a little bit more, and use capture camera once again.
10:19
This time what we'll be doing is updating this camera.
10:22
So as it plays, it extends out and it will hold that as well.
10:29
That will be the end of the animation.
10:32
All right. So now we have our beginning view and our end snapshot view.
10:37
Let's go ahead and export those as Raster images.
10:42
We'll go with the selected views, or we can say all views.
10:48
We can go with the current window size, set a resolution. Let's go with a little higher resolution, maybe 150 pixels per inch.
10:58
Set the path, and choose the file format. We can use bitmap, gif, jpeg, png, or tiff.
11:05
And another added benefit, if your design window background is color,
11:11
and you don't want to use color in a technical document because it will be wasting ink and it can be distracting,
11:18
you can select for a transparent background.
11:21
Let's click Okay.
11:23
This will generate our Raster views, and we can then also say that we want to export our video.
11:33
We can use all Storyboards, the current Storyboard, or we can even set a range within the Storyboard.
11:40
Let's do the current Storyboard, but let's reverse it.
11:45
We use the current window size or we can select a specific resolution,
11:50
although with my screen resolution that would actually be larger, so we'll go with the current window size.
11:58
We can give the output a name and choose whether or not we want wmv or avi.
12:06
We'll click okay, and it will generate the video file using the selected codec.
12:22
With the Raster image and the video created with a more realistic look,
12:26
let's create another image that's more suitable for a simple technical illustration.
12:31
Going to the browser, let's expand the scene and then open the assembly that the scene is based on.
12:37
Once the assembly opens,
12:39
let's activate the Gear Train view representation and then create a new representation we'll call illustration.
12:48
This new representation will look like the gear train because that's what was active when it was created.
12:55
For this new representation, I want to eliminate the color variation.
12:59
So I'll select all of the objects in the assembly and change their appearance to ceramic.
13:06
This will give a more unified appearance.
13:09
Now we can reactivate the full assembly representation just to show that the changes that were in place before are still there.
13:18
Saving the assembly and closing it will return back to the presentation file where we could create a new scene.
13:26
But instead, I'm going to right click on the scene and change the representation to illustration.
13:32
This will update the look of the model and the scene.
13:35
And then let's go to the end of the timeline so we can see the full exploded view.
13:40
Finally, we'll go to the View tab and change the visual style.
13:45
Selecting from all the options, we'll pick Technical Illustration.
13:50
This will further simplify the color, but there's one more step.
13:55
Under Shadows, we'll deselect all shadows.
13:60
This will give us a simple, more line art looking representation of plain white objects with black edges.
14:08
Now let's return to the Presentation tab and create a new snapshot view.
14:14
Once it's created, let's rename it Illustration,
14:19
and then export that Raster image using the same resolution and with a transparent background.
14:27
Once it's saved, we'll go to a word document or any other publishing software, and import the image,
14:35
and see that we have a nice clean illustration of the product.
14:40
And just for reference, let's take a look at that animation output of the assembly.
14:46
An added feature of the presentation file is the associativity to the assembly so that should the assembly change,
14:53
the presentation file will update and make it very easy to keep all of the technical documentation you need up-to-date.
00:06
After completing this lesson, you'll be able to create an exploded view of the assembly, capture snapshots of stages of assembly,
00:14
create output for use in publishing tools, and export an animation of the assembly process.
00:21
A presentation file can be used to generate exploded views of the assembly.
00:26
As part of the process,
00:28
the changes made to the assembly are captured in the Storyboard at the bottom of the screen as events over the course of time.
00:36
These events can overlap and they can change in duration.
00:41
You also have the ability to capture snapshots and save those snapshot views in the files as well.
00:48
If you move the play head through the process of assembly, you can capture snapshots of the partial assembly or disassembly process...
01:01
And at any time, create a new snapshot view.
01:04
This snapshot view can be exported for reuse in technical publishing documents.
01:11
The process of creating an animation begins with creating a Storyboard.
01:16
The Storyboard can be clean with a fresh start,
01:19
or start from the end of the previous Storyboard so you can create a series of exploded views.
01:24
We'll start with a clean Storyboard.
01:28
This will give us our complete view using scene 1.
01:33
It's also possible to create a new scene using the same assembly file.
01:40
We'll go to Options and change the Design View to be of the Gear Train.
01:47
We can also choose whether or not changes made to the Gear Train view representation in the assembly,
01:53
will affect the views that we create in this presentation file.
01:57
If we want that we can leave this associative.
02:01
We'll click Okay and open to generate a new scene.
02:08
This new scene will give us the components that are visible in the design view.
02:13
We can begin by creating events that move the components around called Tweaks.
02:18
We'll start with the backside of the pulley.
02:23
Using the Tweak Components tool in the panel, or with a right click and using Tweak Components in the Marking menu,
02:29
I'll select the first component that I want to tweak.
02:34
It will pick up its coordinates from the component itself, though we can override how those coordinates are established.
02:42
We can also set a duration for a specific event or just keep using that duration.
02:48
I'll use 0.8 as we create additional events.
02:52
First, I'll grab the arrow and move the nut out roughly 2.5 inches.
02:58
Then holding control, I'll select a washer and begin dragging it out roughly 2.5 inches.
03:07
After creating the first move on the hex jam nut, it created an event that ended just before 1 second. That was 0.8 seconds long.
03:18
As I hold control and click the spring, it will record the second event that I made moving both the circular washer and the jam nut.
03:27
Let's continue doing this, moving each of these around 2.5 inches and picking up the components that are mounted to this shaft.
03:39
I'll make this move just a little longer, and then pick up the friction material...
03:51
And then the hub.
03:55
After beginning to move the hub, I want to click Okay to record that event,
04:02
and start a new Tweak Components event for moving this pin out of the way before I begin gathering up the bearing.
04:11
I'll slide the pin out a distance, click Okay, and start the Tweak Components tool again.
04:20
I can safely relocate and reselect the components that I've been choosing, and it will just create a new event.
04:31
And then let's move the bearing off the end of the shaft.
04:35
Let's click Okay for now.
04:40
Let's make three more tweaks, and then we'll pause for a moment and take a look at what we have.
04:45
First, let's grab the R ring that retains the bearing.
04:48
Move it out, then grab the bearing...
04:54
And then we'll grab the gear...
04:59
And slide it out as well.
05:02
Okay.
05:04
Now we have a fair number of tweaks.
05:06
In fact, if we resize the Storyboards panel, we can see all of the events that we have.
05:13
We can rewind back to the beginning and click Play, and it will go through the events on the screen as we made them.
05:25
At any point, we can go back and make tweaks.
05:28
So for example, moving the hub, I moved it out a short distance.
05:34
Let's edit that tweak and move it out just a little farther to give more clarity around the tweak of the pin.
05:45
Now when the bearing and all the other components begin moving, I want that to coincide with the movement of the pin.
05:55
So by holding Control and clicking the Events, I can change when that event occurs.
06:04
Now if we go back and play again...
06:10
We can see that pin slides out just in time before the bearing comes through.
06:16
Now the next thing I notice is picking a point in the timeline and beginning from there, all of that happens,
06:23
and then we have our bearing and retainer from below.
06:28
But what if we were to take and again using control to select these events...
06:36
Let's move these forward in time, so that they coincide with the motion in the upper shaft.
06:45
There, that works pretty well.
06:48
Now let's take a quick look at the other side and we'll just make a couple of changes.
06:57
Let's take our timeline and move it back to where we're starting, so we have a good reference.
07:02
Let's again tweak.
07:05
We'll grab the key, pull it out of the shaft, start another tweak components,
07:12
begin moving the retaining ring out, then both bearings...
07:20
And then a distance out let's drop off the upper bearing and continue on with the lower bearing and retaining ring.
07:31
Now let's take a look at that in total.
07:40
All right, that looks pretty good.
07:45
Now at the beginning of our timeline, this is a good view of the assembly.
07:49
It gives us a clear view of the hub,
07:52
and we want to be able to explain to people that beneath the hub is the friction material pressing up against the pulley.
07:59
So let's go ahead and let's record a snapshot of that assembled view,
08:04
and then let's move the animation to the end,
08:08
and get a good point of view of the assembly where we can clearly see all of the components.
08:16
Let's do a quick snapshot of that, and let's go ahead and make sure that we end up in this point of view in an animation,
08:24
so we'll capture the camera at this point in time.
08:30
So if we move back to the beginning of the assembly...
08:36
Let's move this Storyboard down a little bit so we can see a little more clearly.
08:42
We'll start with this point of view and then roughly at one-half second,
08:49
we want to pivot around to where we can see the nut beginning to be removed,
08:56
and let's capture that view.
08:60
Let's go back to the beginning.
09:02
Let's move the play head to the scratch area where we can establish an initial point of view of the assembly.
09:10
Capture that camera in the scratch board. All right, and then let's play.
09:15
It transitions over here, and then those components start to go out of frame before we can clearly see what's happening.
09:21
So let's go back to the point where everything starts to get stretched out a little too far.
09:27
Zoom out a little bit. Capture the camera again.
09:32
Let's stretch this out just by hovering near one edge, and clicking and dragging to lengthen that transition.
09:40
And then as we get to where the backside is being animated,
09:45
let's change the point of view again to see what changes are being made on this end.
09:51
Do another capture camera.
09:54
Extend that out and let's rewind again.
09:59
Hit play, and see what the animation looks like.
10:05
Okay. Needs to go out just a little bit farther at the end.
10:09
So let's move the play head to the very end...
10:14
Zoom out a little bit more, and use capture camera once again.
10:19
This time what we'll be doing is updating this camera.
10:22
So as it plays, it extends out and it will hold that as well.
10:29
That will be the end of the animation.
10:32
All right. So now we have our beginning view and our end snapshot view.
10:37
Let's go ahead and export those as Raster images.
10:42
We'll go with the selected views, or we can say all views.
10:48
We can go with the current window size, set a resolution. Let's go with a little higher resolution, maybe 150 pixels per inch.
10:58
Set the path, and choose the file format. We can use bitmap, gif, jpeg, png, or tiff.
11:05
And another added benefit, if your design window background is color,
11:11
and you don't want to use color in a technical document because it will be wasting ink and it can be distracting,
11:18
you can select for a transparent background.
11:21
Let's click Okay.
11:23
This will generate our Raster views, and we can then also say that we want to export our video.
11:33
We can use all Storyboards, the current Storyboard, or we can even set a range within the Storyboard.
11:40
Let's do the current Storyboard, but let's reverse it.
11:45
We use the current window size or we can select a specific resolution,
11:50
although with my screen resolution that would actually be larger, so we'll go with the current window size.
11:58
We can give the output a name and choose whether or not we want wmv or avi.
12:06
We'll click okay, and it will generate the video file using the selected codec.
12:22
With the Raster image and the video created with a more realistic look,
12:26
let's create another image that's more suitable for a simple technical illustration.
12:31
Going to the browser, let's expand the scene and then open the assembly that the scene is based on.
12:37
Once the assembly opens,
12:39
let's activate the Gear Train view representation and then create a new representation we'll call illustration.
12:48
This new representation will look like the gear train because that's what was active when it was created.
12:55
For this new representation, I want to eliminate the color variation.
12:59
So I'll select all of the objects in the assembly and change their appearance to ceramic.
13:06
This will give a more unified appearance.
13:09
Now we can reactivate the full assembly representation just to show that the changes that were in place before are still there.
13:18
Saving the assembly and closing it will return back to the presentation file where we could create a new scene.
13:26
But instead, I'm going to right click on the scene and change the representation to illustration.
13:32
This will update the look of the model and the scene.
13:35
And then let's go to the end of the timeline so we can see the full exploded view.
13:40
Finally, we'll go to the View tab and change the visual style.
13:45
Selecting from all the options, we'll pick Technical Illustration.
13:50
This will further simplify the color, but there's one more step.
13:55
Under Shadows, we'll deselect all shadows.
13:60
This will give us a simple, more line art looking representation of plain white objects with black edges.
14:08
Now let's return to the Presentation tab and create a new snapshot view.
14:14
Once it's created, let's rename it Illustration,
14:19
and then export that Raster image using the same resolution and with a transparent background.
14:27
Once it's saved, we'll go to a word document or any other publishing software, and import the image,
14:35
and see that we have a nice clean illustration of the product.
14:40
And just for reference, let's take a look at that animation output of the assembly.
14:46
An added feature of the presentation file is the associativity to the assembly so that should the assembly change,
14:53
the presentation file will update and make it very easy to keep all of the technical documentation you need up-to-date.
In this lesson, create assembly instructions by building an exploded view of the model that can be shared as a still image or an animation.
The completed exercise
