compress a coil

[dpopek]

Is there a way to compress a spring in Inventor? I am trying to show the springs movement in a suspension system.

[Ron Oldenbeuving]

Is there a way to compress a spring in Inventor? I am trying to show the springs movement in a suspension system.
Dave, attached is an adaptive spring assembly. The method for creating this is as follows -

1. Create the the mounting pieces the spring will attach to, and position them in your assembly file.
2. Create a new part within your assembly file (the spring).
3. Within this part, create a workplane on on each of the flat mounting faces the spring will mount to.
4. Create a workplane perendicular to the first 2 workplanes.
5. Create a sketch on the third workplane and project the first 2 workplanes on to it (you can turn the projected curves to construction geometry if it helps).
6. Create a line perpendicular to the 2 projected curves, with the end points of the line constrained to the projected curves. This will be the centreline of your coil.
7. Dimension the length of the line, and accept it as a reference dimension (this will be the length of your spring).
8. On the same sketch, create the section of the spring and dimension and constrain it accordingly. NOTE - I created mine in such a way so I could trim the ends using the workplanes. If you dont want to do this, constrain the bottom of the section tangent to the bottom projected curve.
9. Create the spring using the number of coils and height option, where the height is set to the reference dimension (in my case, d0). If you do not wish to trim the ends, the height would be d0-wire gauge.
10. Finish editing the spring and return to the assembly environment.
11. Drive the constraint that sets the distance between your 2 mounts, with "Drive Adaptivity" checked.

NOTE - It is normal for this type of driven constraint to be quite slow. Also, if the spring disappears, its because the spring has reached a point where the coil self intersects, and Inventor is unable to create a self intersecting solid.

[Ron Oldenbeuving]

Please note, I have moved this thread to this location as I believe this is a more appropriate forum for it.

[dpopek]

Ron,

Thanks for the instructions.
I will give it a try, but I can't open the files. Your data base is a new version than my software.

Thanks Dave

[leomx81606539]

I made an account to say thank you.

I've been trying to figure this out for a while.