Creating images for step-by-step manuals (like LEGO)

[Anonymous]

I've been thinking about using F360 to create images for manuals that for example show how to put something together step by step - like the well known LEGO manuals for example.

Since I'm still learning all this, I wonder if there's a good way to do something like that or if you have any hints on what to look for.

[Beyondforce]

Have you tried to create drawing:
http://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?guid=GUID-73B3C46A-05B4-4F4A-BB07-239346556923

Ben.

[juanaviles]

I believe he's talking about something similar to Solidworks Composer.  I've been looking for something like that as well but I haven't come up with much.

[Beyondforce]

Use the Animation environment, it will do exactly what you want. Let me know if you need help with that.
You can fine a lot of help in here:
http://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?caas=caas%2Fvideo%2Fyoutube%2Fwatch-v-0FITrQ3MWHI.html

[juanaviles]

While the animation environment does make the creation of assets (pics, videos) easy, it doesn't work well for actually creating the documents.  I would like to be able to publish .pdf assembly manuals with exploded views of my products.  Yes, I can get the graphics out of Fusion, but is there an all-in-one solution that can produce the .pdf files as well?  

Right now I create the graphics and store them separately and then import them into a second program...I was just wondering if there is a solution similar to Composer.

[Beyondforce]

You can open the animation in the drawing and then export it as pdf.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsWdkYSytVA

[Anonymous]

I'll try and look into Drawings and the Animation environment like you suggested. I didn't think of drawings since I thought these update with the project which would defy the purpose of showing single steps. But I haven't used them enough to really know.

I might play a bit with that and come back if I need help 🙂

[juanaviles]

That's a video I hadn't seen yet.  

Thanks for posting...I'll be looking into that some more tonight, but it does look like it will do the trick!

[tomae]

Having just spent many many hours in Animation mode trying to do exactly this, I can say that it is definitely NOT SW Composer.  It is a very basic tool that lets you create basic animations in a very limited environment with limited options.  With effort you can produce something useful but it isn't going to be the lego manuals or what can be produced in Composer. With a large amount of "post processing" using other tools on piecemeal output from Fusion 360 Animation it would be possible to make something nice, but not straight out of Fusion 360.  Perhaps in the future this module will get improvements.

-Tom

[Beyondforce]

I admit that the Animation is not that sophisticated, but in time, I'm sure it will get better.

Ben.

[Anonymous]

Quick question that came up yesterday while playing with animation / drawings: If I base a drawing on an animation, does it use the latest state of that animation for the drawing or can I specify a timestamp for example? The question came up because I am not sure how to do each step on its own.

Also I've seen there's a way to modify the material/appearance, but can you do that with keyframes? That'll help to highlight parts that are to be changed, etc.

[Beyondforce · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

I hope this will help:

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that demonstration, Beyondforce.

The storyboards was the feature I missed before. It might work as you suggested, even though it's not as sophisticated of a feature as I had hoped :). Just to see if I understood it correctly: The drawings are always based on the end of the animaton sequence in the chosen storyboard?

Now I need to figure out how to create my own drawing sheet template without title block, etc. But after a quick search it looks like that's something that's not possible yet?

[Beyondforce]

Think of the Storyboard as capturing a scene from an animation move (in the old days). You are positioning the actress and taking a picture, then you creating a new Storyboard and position the actress again....
So when working on creating a manual document, you are actually creating a story. Think of how the story starts, progresses and ends.

Ben.

[Anonymous]

Yes, but in an animation movie the storyboard is built from many
drawings, while in F360 you have a storyboard and create one drawing
from it.

I guess this is what's confusing me. Because in F360 the storyboard is
more about setting up the drawing, while the drawing is just showing the
final step of the animation - and not the other way round.

[Beyondforce]

I understand where you are going with this... think of each Storyboard as a page and when you put all the pages (Storyboards) together, you get a book which you can scroll fast and see the animation 😉
Storyboard = A Page

I hope this explanation is more vivid 🙂

[tomae]

You can, and in your case should, have many story boards.  Each story board, when you create it, has the option to begin from where the last one left off.  So you create a story board that maybe explodes one major component.  Then start a new story board that starts from the end of the first and explodes a second component, and so on.  I first tried to do everything in one or two storyboards.  It is much better to split it up into many storyboards as you have much more control and it is just much easier to manage the smaller chunks one at a time.

[andrew.de.leon]

Hi @Anonymous,

@Beyondforce and @tomae are correct in their suggested workflow - multiple story boards are definitely what you need. In addition to the benefits they described, individual story boards focused on a specific component will give you the flexibility to modify it without impacting downstream component scenes. Once you have your scenes, you can then create a drawing from each story board.

Regarding your other question about drawing template creation, it is possible to create a template without the border and title block and make it available for selection when creating new drawings for your story boards.

If you don't already have a drawing template, after creating the first drawing for your first story board, click on Sheet Settings (at the bottom of the drawing workspace, to the right of the pan, zoom, fit buttons) and unselect the Display Border and Display Title Blocks checkboxes. This will turn them off. Then in the toolbar, expand the Output panel's menu, and select the Output Drawing Template command. This will ask for a drawing template name and location. Save it to a location accessible by your project; maybe a Template folder in the project. Now you have a drawing template thats ready for selection during the creation of your next drawing.

If you've already created a drawing template, navigate to it and open it. Once opened, click on Sheet Settings (at the bottom of the drawing workspace, to the right of the pan, zoom, fit buttons) and unselect the Display Border and Display Title Blocks checkboxes. This will turn them off. Then save and close your drawing template. Now your drawing template is ready for selection during the creation of your next drawing.

Hope this helps.