Lesson video

Hi there, everyone.

My name is Mr. Booth, and welcome to your design and technology lesson for today.

Thank you very much for joining me.

Today, we are gonna be looking at exploded diagrams in CAD.

You're gonna be creating your own exploded diagrams using Tinkercad.

This is the final lesson of a CAD structures unit: "Architecture." And we are gonna be using exploded diagrams to showcase all that wonderful work you have been doing so far.

Today's outcome: I want you to be able to use Tinkercad to draw exploded diagrams. It's as simple as that.

Let's have a look at our keywords.

So first of all, we have "exploded diagram." This is what you're gonna be designing today.

This is a drawing showing how separate components fit together.

We then have "perspective view." Now, believe it or not, the way you have viewed in Tinkercad so far is in perspective view.

You just might not have known it yet.

This is all about viewing 3D objects in 2D.

And when I mean 2D, what I mean is viewing 3D objects on a screen.

Now, in perspective view, this is where objects look smaller as they get further away.

We also have "orthographic view." Once again, it's all about viewing 3D objects in 2D on your screen, but this time, all sides of the objects are to scale.

So that means there's no perspective to the sides.

We also have "isometric diagram," and again, this is drawing 3D objects to scale with all shaped sides drawn at 30-degree angles to the horizontal.

Now that sounds very confusing, but there's a reason for doing that, and you'll find out within the lesson why we do these things.

And then finally, we have "annotate," and of course, this is all about adding notes and labels to something to help explain it.

We've got two learning cycles today.

The first one is all about exploded diagrams. So let's get going.

So exploded diagrams are drawings of an object that has been taken apart.

Exploded diagrams are really useful when trying to understand how a product is made and how parts fit together.

At some point, you might have done this yourself, or you might have helped build some flat-pack furniture.

And if you've done that, you've probably used an instruction manual.

And in that instruction manual, you'll probably find that the diagrams are all exploded views.

They show you how all the components fit together.

So they're really useful for things like that.

Now Izzy has also got another analogy, which is a really good way of thinking about exploded diagrams. And Izzy says, "Imagine taking apart a toy house made of building blocks.

And I think that's such a good analogy, Izzy.

We're gonna take that forward, and we're gonna use that to help us explain what exploded diagrams are.

Check for understanding: What is an exploded diagram? Is it A, a messy sketch of a building? Is it B, a flat version of a 3D model? Is it C, a design that uses fireworks? Or is it D, a diagram that shows parts separated? Pause the video now, have a go at this, come back to me when you've got an answer.

So it is, of course, D, a diagram that shows parts separated.

Definitely not C.

So Izzy has built a simple house out of building blocks.

You can see it here.

Now she's only used 12 bricks because we don't want this to get too complicated.

See, she then starts taking blocks off the model, starting with the roof.

You can see that she's done that first, and then she continues to take the house apart in different sections.

So she's now taken off the top of the front and off the back bricks off next, and then, of course, separated the last few bricks and laid them out.

She's now created an exploded diagram where all the main blocks have been taken apart to show how to make the house.

And of course, you can see it from an angle, or you can see the view from the top.

Now, what I want you to do now is have a little think about what else Izzy has done to make sure that we can see this really clearly.

What else has she done? She hasn't just taken those bricks apart.

I want you to pause the video now, have a chat with the person next to you, or maybe think about this on your own, and come back to me when you think you've got an idea.

So, did you think of anything? Well, I think it's really clear 'cause what you can see is Izzy has done this really neatly.

She's actually taken the blocks off and placed them really neatly around where they originally were, which also helps us in an exploded diagram because it shows how they go back together.

Quick check for understanding: Which of these is Izzy's finished exploded diagram? Is it A, B, or C? Pause the video now, have a go at this, come back to me when you're done.

It is, of course, A.

And you can see from that all the parts are separated, and they've all been exploded separately.

Now onto your first task, and yes, you guessed it, you're gonna be building an object, creating an object, using 12 building bricks.

Now you might want to do some kind of structure or some kind of building.

We have been doing eco-houses and architecture, after all.

I then want you to take it apart piece by piece and lay it out by translating pieces in different directions.

Once you've done that, I want you to ask a friend to try and make your design from the exploded diagram you have done.

Have a go at this task, pause the video now, and come back to me when you're done.

So how did you get on? It's quite a complex task if you haven't seen the original design.

So what you might have had to do is show the original design and then take it apart so that your partner could build it again.

Now Izzy asked Jun to make the house from her exploded diagram, and Jun has said, "I could do it.

The exploded diagram really helped me build Izzy's house." So well done, Izzy and Jun, and well done, you, for completing that task.

So we're now onto our second learning cycle, and this is: "Create an eco-house exploded diagram." So Tinkercad allows designers to see their designs in different views.

We normally work in what's called "perspective view," and this makes objects look smaller as they get further away.

Now, if I go to my local park, there are a line of trees as I arrive in the entrance to the park.

Now, all those trees are a very similar height all the way down to the end of the park road.

But if I stand at the entrance, the trees at the end of the road look smaller than the trees that are next to me.

And that's perspective.

That's how we see things in real life.

So Tinkercad also replicates that to make your products and make your eco-houses look more realistic, to make them look like what they look like in real life.

But Tinkercad can also put things into orthographic view, and you'll see with this that each side of a design is actually to scale.

It doesn't look smaller as it goes further away.

Now this would be a great moment to get logged into Tinkercad, get your eco-houses open, and then click on our little view tool to see the difference for yourself with your eco-house.

So I think it's a great idea to have a go at that now.

So pause this video and have a go at that.

Log into Tinkercad, get open your eco-houses, and press that button, toggle it between perspective view and orthographic view, and see the differences.

So did you have a go at that? I'm sure you did, and I'm sure you saw the slight, subtle difference in how it looked.

Well done.

So, to do an exploded diagram, it's better to use the orthographic view rather than the perspective view so the objects appear to scale.

We want that.

We're doing a technical drawing of our final design, so we want all the sides to be to scale.

So what you have to do is switch from perspective to orthographic view.

So you need to click on the view tool until you get to that point.

What we're then gonna do, and we're gonna see Izzy going through this, is we can use the ViewCube to see Izzy's house from the top view.

Now, if you remember, when you did your building brick model, you probably were looking at it from above as you were taking it apart and translating all those bricks away from each other.

Well, we are gonna do exactly the same, but in Tinkercad.

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna click on the ViewCube and click on the top view of the ViewCube, which will allow us to see it from above.

So now Izzy is gonna do exactly the same as she did with her building blocks and translate one block at a time from her design.

So the first thing she does is she translates the water butts left and right, and then, of course, the solar panels were moved backwards.

Now, once again, this is a perfect opportunity for you to have a think.

What would be a really easy way for Izzy to translate each of those components? I want you to have a think about this.

So pause the video now.

How could she translate those components really easily? Pause the video, come back to me when you think you've got an answer.

So what did you think of? Well, what I thought of was you could select those components, and of course, you might have to ungroup them if you grouped them all, but then you could use the arrow keys to nudge those components away from the original design.

That would be a great way to translate these components.

So let's see how Izzy gets on, because she continues now to translate each block.

So you can see she's translated the grass roof.

She's gone left and backwards for that to put that in a nice place.

And lastly, the indoor garden was translated forwards.

Well done, Izzy.

They look fantastic.

Now, what we're gonna do is we're gonna annotate.

And the great thing about Tinkercad is it has what's called the notes tool.

And you can see I've highlighted it there in the top right-hand corner.

Now, if you click on the notes tool and then select a component, what you can do is you can annotate it.

Now, what might you want to annotate each component? What might you wanna tell me about each component? Once again, have a little chat to the person next to you.

Have a think on your own, and then pause the video and come back to me when you've got a good idea.

So what kind of things did you think of? Well, I thought of maybe labeling the part to tell me what it actually is.

You could also tell me about things like materials or possibly how the parts go together, so which part sits on top of which.

They would all be useful information to include in your annotation.

Another check for understanding: Why is it helpful to annotate an exploded diagram? Is it A, so people know that you did it? Is it B, to make it colorful? Is it C, to explain what each part is? Or is it D, to write your name in big letters? Pause the video now, have a go at this, and come back to me when you've got an answer.

It is, of course, to explain what each part is, C.

Well done with that.

Izzy now has an exploded diagram of her eco-house, which she can view in isometric.

And let's remember that isometric diagrams show 3D objects to scale.

So in this case, with Izzy's diagram, there is no perspective, as it's drawn to scale.

In isometric diagrams, shape sides are drawn at 30 degrees from the horizontal.

Do you remember that from our keywords definition? Well, what it means is that if we view it from the right angle, you can see that all the shape sides are drawn at 30 degrees from the horizontal.

Now, I haven't highlighted the shape sides here.

What I've highlighted is the work plane, but that's the same thing, because that's what we are drawing on.

And if I get my protractor open, you can see it's 30 degrees.

Now vertical lines are still vertical; they go straight up.

But if you've got the side of a shape, especially if it's a cuboid, it's really easy to see, it's drawn at 30 degrees from the horizontal.

Quick check for understanding: From the horizontal, what angle are shape sides drawn at in isometric diagrams? Is it A, 30 degrees? B, 45 degrees? C, 60 degrees? Or D, 90 degrees? Pause the video now, have a go at this, and come back to me when you've got your answer.

It is, of course, A, 30 degrees.

Well done.

Isometric diagrams are best viewed by clicking on the ViewCube's corners, 'cause we want to see them in isometric.

Now the best way to do this is to look at your ViewCube.

And you might not know it yet, you can actually click on the corners.

Now you know you can click on the faces of the ViewCube to snap it to that view.

You can also click on the edges and the corners.

So in this case, we've clicked on the front-top-left view.

They're the three faces I can see.

But you could also view it from the other side, being the front-top-right view.

And that gives you a really good view of your isometric diagram of your exploded eco-house.

Doesn't that look fantastic? So now we're on to our final task.

You are gonna change your eco-house design from perspective view to orthographic view.

You might have already had a little play around with this, so just make sure you are in orthographic view.

I then want you to view the eco-house from the top view and translate the main shapes of the design to create an exploded diagram, just like you did in the first task when you used your building bricks.

You're then gonna annotate each shape that has been translated, remembering to tell me all the information that you want to tell me.

And then finally, I want you to snap it to look at the exploded diagram in isometric using the ViewCube corners.

Pause the video now.

Have a fantastic time doing this task, and come back to me when you've completed it.

So how did you get on? I'm sure you did a brilliant exploded diagram of your eco-house.

And we can see Izzy's results here.

She's created exploded diagram of her eco-house and also looked at it in isometric by clicking on the corners of the ViewCube.

She's then annotated each part to tell me all that information.

Well done, Izzy, and well done you for completing that task.

So we're now at the end of our lesson, and you've been absolutely brilliant.

Let's have a quick summary of everything that we've gone through today.

So exploded diagrams show how the separate parts fit together to be assembled.

Think about that flat-pack furniture again.

Each individual piece of a design needs to be drawn separately in an exploded diagram.

Tinkercad has a notes tool that allows designers to make annotations within their design.

Tinkercad orthographic view can show designs to scale from the front, back, top, bottom, and sides' views.

Tinkercad orthographic view shows designs in isometric, with shape sides drawn at 30-degree angles from the horizontal.

Well done today.

I look forward to seeing you all next time.

Bye-bye.