{"id":292,"date":"2012-03-28T09:30:18","date_gmt":"2012-03-28T13:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/example.org\/puzzling-instruction-sheets"},"modified":"2013-07-22T16:09:27","modified_gmt":"2013-07-22T16:09:27","slug":"puzzling-instruction-sheets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/2012\/03\/puzzling-instruction-sheets.html","title":{"rendered":"Simplifying “Puzzling” Instruction Sheets with 3DVIA Composer"},"content":{"rendered":"

My six-year-old daughter came home from a birthday party recently with some party favors. One of them was a spherical 3D puzzle. It has nine plastic pieces, and you have to slide pieces in and out to make room for other pieces to fit in properly.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a>\"Puzzle\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Her first struggle came in simply taking the sphere apart. That was the first time I was called in for help. When she and I finally got the pieces separated, it was time for her to try to put it back together. She tried for about 30 minutes without success. There was a small instruction sheet but the images were tiny, black and white, and 2D. She never assembled the puzzle.<\/p>\n

\"OriginalPhoto\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When she moved on to another game, I decided to put my skills to the test. I modeled the nine parts in SolidWorks and made a short, interactive animation in 3DVIA Composer<\/a>. I added a “Play Next” button so viewers could advance one step at a time through the animation. Viewers can rotate the model to make sure they are putting the parts together in the proper orientation.<\/p>\n

I called my daughter back to my computer and asked her to give it another try. I gave her the animation in the free 3DVIA Composer Player<\/a> and laid out the nine plastic pieces for her. She was able to complete the puzzle in under five minutes on her first try with the animation!<\/p>\n