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Assembly instructions (PDF)

Make a printable PDF that shows, step by step, how the parts of your design go together, with a parts list.

  • Assembly instructions (PDF)Export menu

Assembly instructions are like the instructions that come with flat-pack furniture. SchoolCAD makes them from your model as an A4 PDF: a cover with a picture of the finished design and its parts list, then numbered steps, each with a picture. Use them in your folio, or take them to the workshop.

How to use it#

  1. Name your parts (double-click a part in the Parts list), so the steps make sense.
  2. Turn the model to a three-quarter view you like. The pictures use your view.
  3. Click Export, then Assembly instructions (PDF).
  4. Wait a moment while SchoolCAD makes the pictures. The PDF downloads by itself.

What is in it#

  • The cover: How to put together: and your design's name, your name and class, the date, a big picture of the finished design, and a Parts table with the quantity, part, size in mm and material of each part.
  • The steps, six to a page. Each step has a number, a picture with the new parts in orange, the names of those parts, and a note on how they join.

The notes come from your features:

  • With a Joint: Join to Left side with a finger joint, glued. Dowel joints say how many dowels to glue in, and their size.
  • With a Mate: It sits against Base.
  • With neither: Fix it to and the names of the parts it touches.

How the steps are ordered#

There is one step for each feature that made parts, in the order of the feature tree. Parts made by the same feature go in at the same step.

Tips#

  • Put your parts together with the Joint and Mate tools. Then every step says how the parts join.
  • Hidden parts are left out. Hide any part you do not want in the instructions.
  • If your view looks straight at one side (such as the Front view), SchoolCAD uses a three-quarter view instead, so the pictures show depth.

If it does not work#

  • Make some parts first. There are no visible parts yet.
  • The note on a step names the wrong parts. Add a Joint or a Mate between the right parts, so the note says how they really join.
  • The steps are in a strange order. They follow the order you made the parts. Dragging a feature to a new place in the feature tree changes the order. SchoolCAD says no if the feature needs something made after it.