Solidworks parts

wexie wrote: »

Guys,

Is there any way in Solidworks to 'explode' a model into it's individual components? As in I've created a simple model that I'd like to make out of plywood, is there any way I could get Solidworks to show me the individual pieces like a cutting list?

Or should I just start with the individual pieces? (that'd be a lot more work I'd imagine?)

thanks!!

If you haven't got an assembly of parts you won't be able to explode. Unless you can separate out the different features into bodies (try right click on the feature in the tree). Don't know if that works with ordinary parts, I've only used it with weldments.
Btw. Creating individual parts in an assembly isn't much more work as you can relate features on one part to dimensions of another. It's the idea sw is based on

If you have one solid body, you can split it into smaller sections using the split tool in the direct editing tab. To do this you will need to create planes where want to split the part.
when this is done a new folder will appear in your design tree showing you how many solid parts you have. You can then right click and select insert into new part, then save it as an individual part. (these parts will have no feature tree though)
to get a better explanation use search "split" in your solidworks help bar