Explode Line Issue

[jcolon]

Every time I make an explode line it is a coin flip whether it goes wonky or not. Even with the same pick points from drawing to drawing. I would like to know if this is a bug or am I doing something wrong. I am trying to make them go up, over and then up again. There are 4 spots where kep nuts are located to slots on the part. I have picked axis to axis, axis to surface and surface to surface and tried several different spots for when I pick. Sometimes I get 2 lines that are correct, other times I get only one correct line and more often than not they are all screwy.

What I have been doing is once I put in the explode line, I got to a side view and edit the line and add jog sections and adjust it as needed. It is a major pain.

[psobejko · Accepted solution]

Yep, that's pretty much how it works according to my experience.

I don't think PTC has put in any effort into the "explode lines" functionality since the 90's.

If you can, cast your vote towards these related "product improvement ideas":

Easily manage the Lines in explode State

Explode lines editing in an expolde state; Re-establish a new reference.

Smart Explode line - Assembly mode‌‌ - this is a funny one

There are many others ideas posted, and I hope they will be considered with enough votes, but I am starting to think that PTC just wants people to buy $20,000 license of Creo Illustrate to generate such documentation...

[jcolon]

Off subject... How do I vote? I have tried on other subjects and even with these you posted and still cannot figure out how to cast my own vote.

[StephenW]

If you click on the links, do you see the IDEA? If you can't see the idea, it means you don't have access to IDEAS, which requires current PTC maintenance.

You vote by clicking the up or down arrow

[jcolon]

Oh man. OK. I guess I don't have maintenance. I only signed up for this board as a learning tool because I jsut started a new job and never used Creo/Pro E before and am doing on-the-job training.

Thank you!

[StephenW]

It seems odd that only maintenance paying customers can submit and vote on product ideas. I think it's a holdover from the old days of support requests becoming "product enhancements". Just another PTC thing that should change.

[Ville]

Hi guys,

This seems to be already quite old thread, but according to my experience, the explode line direction is determined by the location on the surface, what is clicked. Please see attached picture.

So if you select cylindrical surfaces by clicking on the cyan arrow positions, you probably get explode lines pointing to "wrong" direction. By clicking on the blue arrow positions, the explode lines are in correct direction.

I guess it has something to do with the midpoint of the cylinder axis. I try to explain it in the picture below:

So if you clink on the blue arrow position, Creo creates a centerline as long as the selected surface. I think the selection actually selects a point on the centerline (green cross). Then the explosion line is pointing from this point towards the midpoint of the centerline (cyan arrow). So if you have deep holes, you have to click deep inside the hole to get the explosion line pointing outwards.

Ville

[wbottis]

I have tried clicking on different parts of the cylindrical axis with zero luck.  The explode line does whatever it wants, which seems to be correct %50 of the time.

[kdirth]

My experience has been that selecting a cylindrical surface is a crap shoot as to which direction it will go.  The majority of the time it will go the direction I want, but many times it does not especially when the cylinders are not lined up perfectly.  Showing the axis and selecting the end of the axis is a much more reliable way to control the direction.

[wbottis]

There is no solution here.  Why does it say "Solved"?

[StephenW]

The original poster selects which comment "solved" the problem. In this case, they selected the product enhancement request as the solution.  

Basically he is saying the solution is PTC upgrading the software.

[ES_9559320]

This worked for me. I turned on axis display and set the selection filter to axis only and was able to get my desired result!