Making clearer instructions

[Yale]

Originally Posted by airdave

.....
The spelling t-i-r-e seems to be the correct and most common usage. ....

A repair shop back in Nevada, Iowa, some years ago had "Tyre Center" in its sign -- to me the worst of both worlds. I would have stayed with the American spelling "Tire Center," or gone completely British with, "Tyre Centre."

[at6]

I prefer instructions that show me where the parts go and how to fabricate them. Text instructions without diagrams leave me and I'm sure others in the dark and might as well be left out. Pictures need no language or translations. Thanks for designing the models we get to enjoy at the end.

[psf]

@codex34: Just like airdave, I make the instructions first and then label the parts. All parts are labelled numerically, for parts which are mirror copies of one another I tend to append a letter (something like 1A, 1B). In my diagrams the parts are denoted with circles. Subassemblies however, use the number of the prior instruction that showed that particular state and then adds a square around it. Circle means part, square means subassembly.

[herky]

Originally Posted by airdave

This is all fine and dandy with models that have a small part count.
But try working with a model that has upwards of 2000 parts,
resulting in a few hundred "sub-assemblies" and you'll see why some
designers resort to the only the three view part placement diagram.

Exploded view diagrams, in my opinion, are the best option.
You can detail sub-assemblies in this manner, as well as larger collections of
sub-assemblies ...and with fewer diagrams.

The problem with paper models is that individual parts (of sub-assemblies)
also need to be folded, shaped, and attached in a certain way,
and this results in more diagrams and explanations.

An exploded view diagram of a sub-assembly, will often show you how most parts are to be handled, but its sometimes necessary to add some "sub-sub-assembly" diagrams.
Thats when it can get a little cluttered on the page! lol

I'm up to page 16 (letter size pages) of Instructions for my centurion Tank.
I'm trying to jam as much as possible into the pages, but it still has to be readable.
Comprised mostly of exploded view diagrams and sub-assembly placement
diagrams, it is taking as much time and work as creating the actual model!

Yale speaks the truth.
If you can't say it all in the picture, try not to complicate it too much with words.
Some things have to be properly explained, but short sentences are necessary.

I don't care if the diagrams are hand drawn or pulled from a CAD file, as long as they are understandable.
I've seen hand-drawn diagrams that are ridiculously confusing, and yet the designer thinks they are clear as glass.
(Maybe to you.. because you designed it! But everyone else is in the dark!)

I take photos of assemblies...lots of photos.
But I will take a photo of a part, or an assembly, from the precise angle I want to use in the Instructions.
And then I use the photo to draw vector diagrams. I draw right on top of the photo in Corel.
Add colours and shading, and create 3D models which I can then explode by taking apart the elements, or adding more details.
(Since I don't use any CAD or 3D programs, I have little options, so this is the method I have come up with)

Having built several of your models i can only say the way you do your instruction sheets is excellent.
As far as commercial models go i would rate schreibers and hmv instructions as good whereas gpm can be difficult to follow and jsc are just a guessing game as they have very few sub assembly pictures

[Plumdragon]

Thank you each of you for the input, and thanks for the links psf; very interesting! Apologies, though, for my going over old ground, but it can be hard to find specific topics on here for a newbie such as I.
I'd like to add that it's not a case of me not liking computer generated instructional artwork per se; it's badly rendered and unintelligible artwork I was referring to, and there are superb examples of well planned CAD artwork posted in this thread. Clear, simple, concise and as few words as possible. That said, a 2000+ part model is never going to be easy to translate into a simple set of instructions! There's not a lot I need to add, unless anyone has any specific questions for me....
Plumdragon