SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Part III: Working with Assemblies

FIGURE 14.15

Changing the direction of the explode

Direction box

To explode the subassembly as a single part and then reuse its explode steps from the subassembly

file, ensure that the Select sub-assembly’s parts check box is unselected, as shown in Figure 14.16.

Caution
You cannot reuse a subassembly’s explode steps if the subassembly is set to Flexible. SolidWorks will tell you
that there are no explode steps to reuse if you try to reuse the explode steps of a flexible subassembly. In order
to work around this, you can set the subassembly to solve as Rigid, reuse the explode steps, and then set the
subassembly back to Flexible. n

Tip
While exploding the parts, you should rotate the view from time to time. Unless you are creating the explode
for a particular point of view, the explode may look very different if you rotate it a little. n

For the final explode step, the grippers will explode individually in opposite directions. Remember

that these parts belong to another subassembly. If you create an explode step with the Select sub-

assembly’s parts option turned unselected or selected, you will not be able to change it later, so

you need to pay careful attention to what you are doing.

Select the Select sub-assembly’s parts option, select one gripper, Alt+drag the triad to set the direc-

tion, and then drag the distance of the explode. If you are in the mood to submit an enhancement

request to SolidWorks, then you may want to request a Symmetrical Explode function for situa-

tions such as this. Figure 14.17 shows the finished result of the explode.