Actions, steps and phases in 3D folding sequences

About actions, steps and phases

A folding sequence consists of actions, steps and phases. Brief introductions to each follow.

• An action is the basic movement that is directly associated with a particular panel. Actions determine how a panel will fold in a folding sequence; in a multi-part folding sequence, actions determine also the movement of the inserted part.

Because an action is part of a step, to create an action, you have to have created a step.

• A step is a series of actions that take place at the same time. Steps are created to group actions of the same class and to set off similar actions within a particular phase — for example, to assign individual steps for folding each body panel and the glue flap, and the dust flaps, respectively.

A step is part of a phase: to create a step, you need to have created a phase in which to place it.

• A phase consists of one or more steps and differentiates between the separate finished states in a folding sequence. By default, each 3D drawing has two predefined phases: Initial State and Usage. The former is the default state of the design, which corresponds to the design's 2D state; the latter is an editable phase in which all panels are folded at 90 degrees until the design is fully folded.

Folding and construction sequences

By using 3D Presenter, you can (1) fold a single design (single-part folding sequence), or (2) construct complex structures made up of several designs (multiple-part construction sequences).

• Single-part folding sequence. This is a series of consecutive operations in which you assign basic actions to the panels, such as folding and prefolding.
• Multiple-part folding and construction sequence. This is a series of consecutive constructional and folding operations. Here, the main and the inserted parts can be assigned different actions: (1) folding and prefolding actions to the main part, and (2) parallel, perpendicular and sliding constructional movements to the inserted parts. Also, you can bring inserted parts to a particular phase of its own folding sequence by using the Construct and Deconstruct actions. Learn more about how to create actions in multipart folding and construction sequences.