# Exploded view — when it helps sell and what it takes

> An exploded view shows the product taken apart along one axis: you see what it's made of and how the parts connect. It helps products whose key value is hidden inside or in the box: electronics, housings, mechanisms, kits. It takes the product's composition — a CAD model, an assembly drawing or a disassembled sample — and a decision on which assemblies to show: on a marketplace, four large assemblies beat forty screws. If you need to show how things sit inside, you need a cutaway, not an explosion.

Source: https://gluke.ru/knowledge/exploded-view · Author: Alexander Glukhov · Updated: 2026-10-08

A buyer can't open the housing on a product listing. An exploded view does it for them: it shows what's inside and why the product is built better than a competitor's.

## What it is

> **Illustration:** Left: the product assembled, with the housing, battery, board and lid stacked. Right: the same parts moved up along one axis, with dashed lines showing where each one goes.
>
> Parts are spread along one axis, each hanging above its place.

The product "flies apart" along one axis — usually vertically — and each part hangs above its place. Dashed lines or a shared axis show where it goes on assembly.

## Which products it helps

- **Electronics and appliances**: housing, board, battery, cooling.
- **Products whose value is in how they're built**: multi-layer designs, mechanisms, hardware.
- **Kits and sets**: what's in the box.
- **Self-assembly**: what it's made of and in what order it goes together.

## Labeled, with nothing extra

> **Illustration:** An exploded view of four assemblies with numbers and labels: lid, board, battery, housing.
>
> Four large numbered assemblies stay readable even on a phone screen.

On a marketplace listing the view is seen on a phone, so there are few assemblies, they're large, and they carry numbers and short names. In technical documentation there can be more parts: there it's studied on a big screen.

## Exploded view or cutaway

> **Illustration:** Left: an exploded view of three parts spread vertically, labeled 'what it is made of'. Right: a housing with a section cut away showing the internals, labeled 'how it sits inside'.
>
> An exploded view shows what it's made of. A cutaway shows how things sit inside.

An exploded view answers "what is it made of". A cutaway answers "how does everything sit inside": channels, layers, flows. For a boiler or a multi-layer design a cutaway is more useful; for a set of parts, an exploded view.

## What an exploded view takes

- **The product's composition**: a CAD model or an assembly drawing. Without them, a disassembled sample or detailed photos of the parts. More in [What materials a 3D artist needs](https://gluke.ru/knowledge/source-materials).
- **Which assemblies to show** and which to merge: that's the client's call — you know what matters to the buyer.
- **Part names** and, if needed, short benefit labels.
- **Where the view will live**: a listing, a website, a manual. That decides the number of parts and the format.

## What it looks like in practice

- [HouseGuru](https://gluke.ru/projects/house-guru): exploded views breaking down how products are built, for marketplace listings.
- [FPV FRAME](https://gluke.ru/projects/fpv-frame): exploded views of drone frames with the parts taken apart.
- [SibMaster](https://gluke.ru/projects/sibmaster): technical cutaways of boilers showing the internals — the grate, the gas channels, the water circuits.

## Common mistakes

- Spreading out all forty parts: on a phone it's a mess.
- Parts flying in every direction with no shared axis: it's unclear what goes where.
- Not sending the product's composition and expecting the "insides" to be made up.
- Asking for an exploded view when you need a cutaway, and vice versa.

## Checklist

1. The product's composition: CAD, an assembly drawing or a disassembled sample.
2. Which assemblies to show.
3. Names and labels.
4. Where the view will live.
5. What to show: composition — exploded view; layout inside — cutaway.