# Exploded view drawings in Sketchup



## Treefarmer (Mar 19, 2007)

I posted this response to some comments concerning exploded view diagrams in Tom's post of his fall Sketchup challenge. Then I figured it should probably get a posting of its own. I'll do a tutorial sometime soon.

But in the meantime, just so folks know it's not only possible but typical….

Exploded view diagrams is how I do all my final dimensioning in Sketchup. It's a pretty typical process. If you subscribe to FWW online take a look at the Design, click, build blog. I haven't been contributing to it much since finding LJ but Tim Killen , one of the other contributors is a master Sketchup user and has done some great explanations of his methods. Very impressive stuff. Very well documented design process.

During development of the piece every individual piece of wood is made into it's own component (components are the key to working effectively in Sketchup). Once I have the design finished I'll make a copy of the whole thing and then create an exploded view. I then dimension the individual parts. I can then either print them out, print full size templates, or just review them onscreen while I build.

Here's a view of my Morris chair an exploded dimensioned view of the side pieces.


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## mot (May 8, 2007)

Well, using Sketchup that way makes it entirely more practical for me to spend more time with. Thanks Bob! As always, your posts have the info, brother!


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## shapeshifter (Aug 31, 2007)

heheheh… exploded views are a typical final product when miscalculating the amount of polyurethane foam to expand between the veneer plies of a wood and foam clam shell build…

...but i can't wait for your tutorial because i'm hoping that this will give me another tool to lessen that possibility to some degree.


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## boboswin (May 23, 2007)

This is looking better and better!
Thanks for your time and efforts Bob.

Bob


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## Treefarmer (Mar 19, 2007)

The benefits of using Sketchup are so numerous that I can't imagine designing any other way. I would like to see a similar implementation for organic shapes though. Some folks are doing amazing things though. I know that folks here think I'm a guru or something but the true guru's amaze me.
http://www.sketchucation.com/scf/viewtopic.php?f=96&t=2476


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