Software for an illustrated parts manual

[SelferectingCrane]

Can anyone advise me on what software packages are used to produce Illustrated parts manuals etc. eg full drawing of a gearbox and all its parts shown seperately.

 

[MadMango]

I would think that most companies use the illustrations taken from the native CAD program the parts were made in (ProE, SolidWorks, Inventor) then output as image files (JPG, Tiff, GIF) that are inserted into a word processor like MS Word, or possibly QuarkExpress for formating.

Where I work, we use JPGs from SolidWorks, and insert them into Word to create our service and owner manuals. Ray Reynolds
Senior Designer
Read: faq731-376
"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities."

 

[mloew]

SelferectingCrane,

You may be interested in software called IPA by Immersive Design. I saw a demo at a Pro/ENGINEER user's group late last year. You can find some really
good info at:

http://www.immdesign.com.

They also have an evaluation available for download. Best regards,

Matthew Ian Loew

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

 

[Anthonyr]

We have created very useful manuals using digital photographs imbedded in WORD documents. The digital photos can be easily inserted as bitmap or jpeg images. Using photos, you can very effectively demonstrate assembly procedures and other routine maintainence. Showing the assembly procedure step by step with arrows and notes with an actual person performing the procedure can make it very clear to the end user. Also, you can lay out the parts for a photo and identify them with part numbers.

 

[Steveeng]

One piece of software that I have seen for doing technical manuals is called Isodraw.
Web site at:-

http://www.isodraw.com/

Depending on what program you currentl use it possible to use some like Solid Edge to generate a jpg image of an exploded view and use that in a DTP program or even Word to produce a manual.

John S.
Nottm, England

 

[dik]

PTC had/has a free copy of proDesktop Express that can be used for solid modelling. Only problem with the program is that it must be registered semi-annually. It's an excellent program for 3D stuff, but the learning curve is a bit steep (if you need your manual next week, best look elsewhere), but well worth the price <G>. It's like a real ProEngineer Junior, without a lot of the ProE features. It exports to *.tif, *.jpg as well as a host of others... I've used the program, and inspite of a few bugs/features it works well...

I often do things in 2D AutoCAD and export them to *.wmf (Windows Meta File) format. These can readily be embedded in MS Word documents. WMF's are also the slickest way to embed vector format graphics in Delphi programs.

 

[Sideways]

I've recently changed how I do assembly manuals because due to layoffs I need to illustrate and compose them myself. Before we had to model and assemble in SolidWorks, Saveas to AutoCAD, import to Adobe Ilustrator, insert into Indesign. Now I it all in SolidWorks. I print to Acrobat Distiller to make a .pdf version. I make my own standards. So, choice of fonts is now problem. Formatting text columns is not consistant of course like you would have with a desktop publishing software, but I try to minimize text and let the picture do the the talking. Header and footer is set with templates. Page numbering, TOC, or indexes are manual processes which really the only drawback. But the time savings compared to the prior method makes up for this.

 

[TheTick]

If you are going to use Adobe Illustrator, get PDF995 at

http://www.pdf995.com

You can than insert PDF's directly into Adober Illustrator. Makes for a pretty clean import into Illustrator.



Gravity is a harsh mistress.

 

[smcadman]

We do the whole manual in AutoCAD. We don't export to Word, or any other software (such as illustrator).

Flores

 

[morbark]

If you're using a 3D CAD pkg. you've got the information already. We're using SolidEdge...a great tool. It will explode drawings, allow you to change them, creat .jpg's, etc....great stuff.
B

 

[ELGORDO63]

SelferectingCrane,

You might look at Interleaf. It's a publishing software vs. a word processor like Word. It lets you produce books with chapters, etc. It has a large selection of import filters for graphics. It will import Pro Engineer files directly, like .prt, .asm, .dwg files. It has a moderate learning curve, but it's fast once you master it. The company once shared an office building with PTC in Boston, so they might have actually talked to each other.

My 2 cents.

ElGordo 63

 

[okeng]

We do parts manuals for several of our customers and every one is a little different.

If the product is something that we designed, then we have 3D models in Microstation and the iso line drawings are sort of automated. We have cells (mostly 2d) for several hundred different common hardware items like nuts, bolts, and so on. Doing the hardware and item bubbles typically takes longer than drawing the exploded view of the &quot;important&quot; parts.

The fastest way for us to do them is to just do the whole page in Microstation even though is is pretty crappy at text and importing bills of material from excel or databases. Fonts are always a bit of a problem, too.

We do some where we take the illustration done in Microstation and export it to Paperport, then export it as a .tiff file, then import that into Word or Publisher. This is a little cumbersome, obviously, but i've not found another way to get decent graphics into Word. Yes, you can just cut and past from Microstation but the resolution is very poor.

Sometimes we have customers that don't have any models (sometimes not even drawings) of anything. They just bring a piece of machinery by and leave it for us to create a manual. On this kind of deal we do a combination of rough modeling (without regard for exact dimensions) and sort-of freehand 2d drawing in an iso view. This is something that is pretty tough for some people and easy for others. It's very easy to get totally bogged down making the illustration much more exact and detailed than it needs to be. There is a huge difference in the time required for different people to do this kind of work. The ones that are best at it are the ones that have some artistic ability and &quot;eye&quot;.

Overall, parts manuals are something that most people find very frustrating. Engineers typically are not good at creating them, Artists usually don't understand the technical stuff, writers/publishing types are clueless on CAD and illustration.

However you wind up doing them, one thing I would absolutely recommend is to &quot;print&quot; the final result as a .PDF file using Acrobat or PDFWRITER (from FinePrint). Everyone in the world can read them, not many can screw them up, and even the Mac-fixated printing folks can deal with it. It's probably the best software-related thing thing that has ever been done.

Just guessing from your handle that you are in the mobile equipment business--you have lots of other issues to deal with like deciding how deep to break down vendor-supplied components. I've never seen two companies do this the same way. Some just include, for instance, the Rexroth pump parts manual in the package.

Anyhow, a very complex issue--don't get to feeling bad when it seems to take way longer than it should. Just about everyone has the same problems, it seems.

Jess Davis
Davis Precision Design

 

[threeway]

I'm working with Rhinoceros, real easy to learn and you just render your image and save as *.tiff, *.jpg, *.bmp etc. and then use it in Word or whatever you like etc.

See

http://www.rhino-3d.com

for more information and evaluation.

Just create different groups/parts to make a exploded view easy, and the move them the way you want, or create different files per part and import them.