exploded-view-illustration

Exploded-View Illustration Technique

Concept

An exploded-view diagram shows the internal components of a device separated along a common axis (usually vertical for portrait posters), with leader lines and labels identifying each component.

Layout Strategy

Poster (portrait, e.g. 2400x3200)
  ├── Title block (top-left)
  ├── Exploded component stack (center)
  │   ├── Layer 5: Top Casing        ← highest Y offset (top)
  │   ├── Layer 4: Thermal Unit
  │   ├── Layer 3: PCB Board
  │   ├── Layer 2: Battery Pack
  │   └── Layer 1: Interface / Bottom ← lowest (bottom)
  └── Legend / spec block (bottom)

Isometric Slab Drawing (Pillow)

Each hardware layer is drawn as a parallelogram/trapezoid to suggest 3D depth:

def draw_slab(draw, cx, cy, w, h, depth, fill, outline, line_w=2):
    """
    Draw an isometric rectangular slab centered at (cx, cy).
    w = width, h = thickness (vertical), depth = isometric depth offset
    """
    # Top face (parallelogram)
    top = [
        (cx - w//2,          cy - h//2),
        (cx + w//2,          cy - h//2),
        (cx + w//2 + depth,  cy - h//2 - depth//2),
        (cx - w//2 + depth,  cy - h//2 - depth//2),
    ]
    # Front face
    front = [
        (cx - w//2, cy - h//2),
        (cx + w//2, cy - h//2),
        (cx + w//2, cy + h//2),
        (cx - w//2, cy + h//2),
    ]
    # Right side face
    right = [
        (cx + w//2,          cy - h//2),
        (cx + w//2 + depth,  cy - h//2 - depth//2),
        (cx + w//2 + depth,  cy + h//2 - depth//2),
        (cx + w//2,          cy + h//2),
    ]
    # Draw back-to-front
    draw.polygon(top,   fill=lighten(fill), outline=outline, width=line_w)
    draw.polygon(right, fill=darken(fill),  outline=outline, width=line_w)
    draw.polygon(front, fill=fill,          outline=outline, width=line_w)

Layer Separation (Explode Axis)

import numpy as np

layers = ["Interface", "Battery", "PCB", "Thermal Unit", "Casing"]
n = len(layers)
explode_gap = 120        # px between layers
center_x = poster_w // 2
base_y = poster_h // 2 + (n * explode_gap) // 2

for i, name in enumerate(layers):
    cy = base_y - i * (slab_height + explode_gap)
    draw_slab(draw, center_x, cy, ...)