Coil Spring compression?

[jabtay]

Hi all, I am having some issues with an assembly drawing im working on. I have a strut, shock assembly (that is constrained for movement) a spring retainer constrained to the top part of the shock tube, and I created a coil spring using the compression spring command. I set the spring up with proper weight loads and spring size. I cannot however get it to compress properly. when i move the upper shock tube, it pushes the coil down into the strut...im pretty sure thats not what happens in real life lol. any help on something im missing would be great. I tried to put a constraint on the spring mount on the strut, and spring already, it just locked up the whole system.

[JD Mather]

Drive Constraint.

Can you zip and attach what you have so far?

[Rob_V]

Drive constraint should work as long as the compression has the ends constrained to other parts with in the assembly, and therefore adaptive to the movement of the assembly.
Modifying the distance of travel via mate constraints or angular constraints should show movement in the spring.
Adaptive springs will generate huge loads on the system memory, this may cause your spring movement to fail, even though your other parts seem to move correctly. (Have seen this before using adaptive parts in an assembly file)

[jabtay]

sorry for the late response, Thanks for your input. Where can i find drive constraints, and will it be in Inventor Suite?

[jon.ottewell]

Drive constraint is an option if you right click on any constraint in your assembly.

[jabtay]

Very good. Thanks...now i just have to figure out how to use it.

[JD Mather]

...now i just have to figure out how to use it.

If you get stuck simply zip and attach what you have so far.