【转帖】acceptable to have assembly drawing an exploded view

yang686526

acceptable to have assembly drawing an exploded view?
hi all.
i have a high level question regarding what an assembly drawing should be.  to me, an assembly drawing should be a three view of the assembly, with auxiliary views and sections taken as appropriate.
i have a designer (technically my boss) who insists on making his assembly drawings as exploded views.  i understand why he does this from a business standpoint (we don't really have a tech pubs dept.), but as an engineer, it just rubs me the wrong way.
anybody have any experience with using exploded views as the engineering assembly drawing?  i'd like to be able to point to something and say it's a no-no.
thanks.
check out our whitepaper library.
is assembly a noun or a verb?
noun.
yes, as far as i can discern it is allowed.
per asme 14.24-1989 (may be a later revision by now), para 1.4 "preparation methods... (orthographic, pictorial, or exploded views)... are a concern of this standard only to the extent that the drawing satifies its intended purpose."
asme y14.100m-1998 states in para 4.9 that "isometric or pictorial views shall be in accordance with asme y14.4m, and may be shown on engineering drawings provided that clarity is not degraded."
i don't have a copy of y14.4m, but doubt that it would restrict their use.
i'm sure others will add to this.
good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor."fff"> - robert hunter

i have y14.4m.  exploded views are indeed mentioned.  y14.4m allows a great many types of views, even actual annotated photographs can serve as the drawing.  using photos to show assemblies was actually my biggest question in this topic before i bought the standard.
bg109g, you might be thinking of "level 3" (if i re  
thanks, matt.  i do re  
if the intended purpose of the drawing is to depict what the finished assembly looks like then i'd go for non-exploded.
if the intended purpose of the drawing is to depict how the thing goes together then i'd go for exploded.
there is no reason you can't do both on the same drawing.
i agree with the others. drawings are to depicts how the assy goes together. if it requires an exploded view, then show it. but, i would never show only an exploded view. the only areas that i have shown only exploded views are sometimes on job travelers, marketing brochures, or for customers that request it.
chris
solidworks/pdmworks 08 3.1
autocad 08; catia v5
i will chime in, exploded views are allowed.  as mintjulep said, it really depends on the purpose of the assembly drawing.  if the exploded view does not add clarity, then it shouldn't be used.
as for photos, when digital cameras because affordable (circa 1996?) i worked at a place that began to use photos for some wiring harness details.  the problem quickly arose after seeing a drawing copied and/or faxed.  it took several months for people to decide which gray scale setting they would use so the inserted photos would survive a few copy/fax actions.  very ugly.
"art without engineering is dreaming; engineering without art is calculating."
i'm against using photos on drawings. i have only seen problems with them when others start copying them. they are good on documents for viewing purposes on a monitor only.
i once worked with a company that decided to make one whole project with photos of it instead of taking the time to draw it. the drawings were full of these wonderful photos. then the customer received them and could not make copies and reduce them to smaller sheets, the photos turned black. if any changes were needed, new photos were needed, but then that specific product was shipped, the current ones were slightly different because of design changes.
chris
solidworks/pdmworks 08 3.1
autocad 08; catia v5
as long as an assembly drawing shows all components in their final position and orientation, and accurately describes the finished product all criteria are met. if an exploded view helps show exactly what a component is and where it goes, good, but you must show it in it's final position as well.
the other side of this is that you should not be telling someone how to build the assembly or what methods they should be using. these should go in an assembly instruction document.
david