Expose Assemblies

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The Expose Assemblies program will help you complete assembly drawings faster. You can select the entire model of your product (for example, an exhibition stand), call this program and it will put all found blocks (assemblies) in a row at a given point. After that, it will be easier for you to arrange viewports with views of each assembly.

In addition, the program can:

• Explode the parts of each assembly in different directions, as the program "TNT - Assembly Explosion" does.

• Create a header with the name of the block above each exposed block. The title is customizable, you can write any properties, attributes and parameters of the block.

• Read and write to the header the number of identical blocks. Moreover, you can take into account the layer and scale of the block, or you can ignore them.

• Deploy blocks "facing the public". That is, rotate the block around the Z axis, so that the largest flat surface of any solid turns in the -Y direction. This is especially useful when you are designing walls and partitions.

• Select the optimal block insertion point even for blocks whose insertion point is located arbitrarily, away from block objects.

• Adjust the distances between the exposed assemblies along all three axes.

• Customize the position and size of the header.

• Draw decorative borders around each assembly and around the entire exhibition.

• Extract nested blocks.

• Extract blocks from arrays and from external links.

• Assign a layer to exposed assemblies.

• Filter only the necessary blocks by layers.

• Multiply the number of assemblies by the batch size to be produced.

• Disable all these features in the dialog box.

• Quickly switch between multiple presets (Expose-styles)

The program can also be used in flat layout drawings, for blocks consisting entirely of polylines and curves.

The original blocks remain unchanged - their copies are exposed.

The program does not work with annotative and non-explosive blocks (they are not considered assemblies).

Read about downloading and installing the program here.

To run the plugin, you will have to register account and top up your account balance or receiving bonuses.

Then you can activate one of the licenses:

• • Annual license - 10 EUR.

  • Unlimited license - 50 EUR. Free updates for 1 year.

  • The trial period is 20 days.

The Expose command is also included in the set A>V>C> Pro.

Select all product assemblies, call the _Expose command. If nothing has been selected yet when calling the command, the program will ask you to select blocks. After running the program, the selection can be saved - use the general settings A>V>C>.

Next, specify the point where to insert the assemblies. The point request will have options:

• SwitchStyle - quickly switch between 9 presets.

• TUNE- call the configuration dialog.

The bottom left corner of the first assembly will be inserted at the point you pick. Choose your starting point based on whether you set positive or negative offsets between assemblies.

The program will calculate how many identical assemblies were selected depending on the substitutions in the header and the geometry and appearance check settings. You can merge assemblies of the same name from different layers and different scales.

The program will insert the first assembly at the specified point, make it a title and frame. Next, the program will indent with the specified offset along the three axes and insert the next assembly. And so on.

When extracting subassemblies from assemblies, both nested blocks and top-level blocks will also be included in the exposed assemblies.

Retrieving subassemblies from xrefs in the current drawing will make copies of the blocks from the outer drawing, but the names will look like those of the outer block (FileName|BlockName).

The original assemblies remain unchanged.

Watch the console - all program messages are displayed there.

Settings dialog

The command setup dialog can be invoked when selecting objects or entering an insertion point using the Customize option. You can also configure the Expose command in the A>V>C> Options Palette or through the main AutoCAD settings dialog (_Options command).

Style name

Name for this Expose-style. Not used in the program. For convenience only.

Title

Assembly title template. Use block-assembly and drawing block property and attribute substitutions. You can add any text and formatting characters (eg \\P - line break).

• Style - text style for the title.

• Height - the size of the title text. If 0 is given, then the TEXTSIZE system variable is used.

• Above / Below - Place the title above or below the assembly. Title offset from the assembly can be configured.

• Inside - Place text inside assembly dimensions. If you turn on the render mode with solid face fills, you won't see the title because the texts will be under the assembly.

• Center - Align the center of the header to the center of the assembly dimensions. If the title is inside the part, then vertical centering will be performed too.

• Frame - make a border around the title text.

Selected object Filter

Filtering is needed to discard drawing objects that accidentally fall into the selection frame. It is easier to select all the objects of the model in a frame, and let the program select only the necessary ones from them. Here you can also enable the search for subassemblies inside assembly blocks. You can filter out all objects on locked layers. You can set ignored layers - the program will not work with them. 

X, Y, Z space

Distance between assemblies along one axis. If you specify 0 for all three indents, then the program will set the assemblies along the X axis to the right of the insertion point, and the indent size will be the size of the assembly. Indents can also be set to negative. In this case, the alignment of the assemblies will take place in the direction opposite to this axis. Moreover, negative indents must be set together with the size of the largest assembly. That is, positive numbers are perceived by the program as gaps between assemblies, and negative numbers are placement steps between insertion points. This is not a bug, it's a feature that allows you to arrange assemblies absolutely evenly in a straight line in 3D space.

Title space

Extra padding between title and assembly. Set to 0 to use an indent equal to the height of the title text. Fires only when the title is placed above/below the assembly, and not inside its dimensions.

Frame space

Distance between assembly and frame. And also between all assemblies about a common frame. If set to 0, then the program will choose an indentation depending on the size of the assemblies.

Layer

Assign a layer for exposed blocks (assemblies). By default, the layer is assigned "Excluding". This layer is by default ignored by all A>V>C> commands, which will help you not to make a mistake in counting the number of assemblies in the model. If you leave the field empty, then the original layer of the block will be saved.

TNT - Explode Assembly

For each assembly, a procedure for the explode of parts in space can be called. An exploded view of an assembly can help you identify the positions of parts in assemblies. The same algorithm is used as in the TNT command. The new block name template is only configurable in the TNT command: by default, "tnt" and the explosion force are added to the name of the original assembly. 

• The force of the explosion is configurable in expose-style. It must be a number greater than 1. By default, the parts are removed from the center of the assembly 2 times further than they were originally.

Facing forward

Rotate the block around the Z axis so that the largest flat surface is turned in the opposite direction of the Y axis. This option is useful when assembly blocks are created thoughtlessly and were initially turned with facades in different directions. For flat blocks, the longest line will be found and it will be expanded along X. When choosing a facade plane, the marking of surfaces with color, surface area, and the presence of coating materials are taken into account. Other things being equal, the program will prefer surfaces rotated upwards along the Z-axis of the world coordinate system. It is not recommended to use the option in complex assemblies, since it will take a long time to iterate over all faces of all solids.

Choose the best insertion point

Ignore the block's normal insertion point. Search for the minimum (lowest-left) point on the assembly objects and insert blocks at this point. This option is useful when assembly blocks are thoughtlessly created and their insertion point is far beyond the assembly details.

Exposition Frame

Draw a rectangle around the entire series of assemblies. Just to visually separate the calculation from the main model. The polyline will be created on the XY plane in the non-printing Info layer.

Assembly Frame

Draw a rectangle around each assembly, along with a title. If the optimal insertion point is not selected, then the frame will be expanded to fit the standard insertion point of the block. The polyline will be created on the XY plane in the non-printing Info layer.

Merge the same data

Expose identical assemblies once. All properties used in the title are taken into account to distinguish different assemblies. The number of assemblies can be shown in the title using the %count% substitution

• Appearance similarity - When combining assemblies, the program must take into account not only the title, but also the color, layer, linetype.

• Geometric similarity - When merging assemblies, consider the scale of the block insertion and its geometry. But block rotation are still ignored.

• Size Descending - Sort assemblies in descending order of size, from largest to smallest. If you turn off the option, then first there will be small assemblies, and then large ones.

• Mirrored Separately - Spread mirrored blocks separately. In this case, you can use the substitutions "Number of normal" %counright% and "Number of mirrors" %countmirror%.

Multiplication query

Request the number by which the number of objects will be multiplied. Use to calculate the number of parts and assemblies in a lot. The multiplier is stored in the drawing properties. Even if it was not requested, the amount will still be multiplied by it.

Convert numbers to string

These settings are only used to convert size numbers to a string in assembly titles. It is rarely used in this command. More details can be found in the description of the LAY command settings.

The program settings are stored in the Windows registry, in the current user section. Therefore, they will work the same in all drawings and in all versions of AutoCAD and BricsCAD. Settings can be transferred to another computer only by exporting a registry key. To do this, the A>V>C> Options Palette has tab for exporting and importing settings.