springs in motion

[campbell.58097]

I am trying to get a spring to be adaptive. I have seen it but never been able to duplicate the process. I know I have to use a work plane and set it adaptive. The problem I am having is that when I insert the sprint into my assembly I cannot turn the adaptively on for the part. Is there something I am doing wrong in the creation of the original part file? The other problem I have is that when I do get it to turn on and use a constraint only the plane moves not the object. I would appreciate any help I could get on this. Let me know if you need the files I can send them.

Jeff Campbell
Assistant Prof
Computer Aided Drafting Design
CMSU

Inventor 8 Profesional

[sturiley001]

Have you installed service pack 1 for Inventor 8? There is an "opportunity for improvement" with the base version.

[TSch.74734]

Hi !
Please note:
You've to set not only part "adaptive" but also the features which should be controlled
by the "adaptivity".
I think that the "Helix" feature for springs don't offers a property "adaptive", so you've to use parameters (ex the distance between two workplane) or a "help feature" like an
exrusion to enable the wanted functionality.

Hope that this will help you
Regards
Thomas

[jmckinney]

I also had a problem with not being able to make a part adaptive after I had been testing it for a while. I have found that once you make a part adaptive in an assembly, it activates an adaptive flag in the part model automatically. Even if you delete the assembly in which the part was originally made adaptive, you have to reset the flag in the part model manually. To access this flag use the following method: Tools -> Document Settings -> Modeling (tab). You then want to uncheck the box labeled "Adaptively used in assembly". This will now allow you to make this part adaptive again in another assembly if you wish.

[robert.templeton]

You can make adaptive coil springs. It is a little bit tricky, but it is not difficult.

I will assume you have an assembly with two parts with parallel faces that are constrained to be a known distance apart. I will also assume that you have an axis for the spring and that the axis is perpendicular to the faces. The axis can be the centerline of a hole or of a guide pin.

While in the assembly, create a part (spring.ipt). Finish the initial sketch. Create a work plane at a distance of zero from each of the parallel faces. Create a work axis on the axis of the guide pin. Create a work plane that includes the work axis and that is at the desired angle to the other parts (select the work axis, then select some face that is parallel to the work axis and type the angle value.) Create a sketch on that work plane. Project the first 2 work planes and the work axis into the sketch. Draw your wire cross-section at the required distance from the central axis. Add a constraint to make the wire tangent to the projection of one of the work planes (but not to the work plane itself). Dimension the diameter of the wire, the radius of the spring and the distance from the center of the wire to the projection of the opposite work plane (this will be a reference dimension). Finish the sketch and select the COIL tool. Select the profile and the axis. Select the COIL SIZE tab and select Revolution and Height. The value for Height is the reference dimension minus one-half of the wire diameter. Choose your coil ends and create the coil. Finish the edit. In the assembly, you can drive the constraint between the two faces and the spring will update to match the distance. It is not a real-time update but it works well.