Draw a wire clip spring in Atom3D

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

Alibre Atom 3D. how do I draw a flat wire spring.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

When you say flat wire spring is that round wire just bent or a flat wire wound in some way. Can you post an image of the sort of thing you are after

Either case I would sketch the cross section, do another sketch of the shape of the bend and then sweep the section along the sketch which is the path.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Can you post an image of the sort of thing you are after

 

He did … I saw it last night !

… clearly round wire bent into a flat shape

MichaelG.

.

Edit: __ There is one of those “missing image” icons currently showing in the duplicate topic.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

So sketch a circle the diameter of your wire where you want one end of the spring to start

Then sketch the shape of the bend(s) with one end of the sketch starting at the ctr of the circle put on a plane at right angles to it

Then sweep the circle (sketch 1) along the path (sketch 2)

The red lines show the two sketches and how the path starts from the ctr of the circle. I’ve hidden the axis lines as they were obscuring the red path

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Nice demo, Jason

Piece of cake when you’re an expert !

 

MichaelG.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

Thanks Jason. It looks easy when you know how.

 

EDIT I have drawn a shape of the outline of the spring which looks like a D shape with double recurved ends of a 0.060″ radious on each end. the wire is only 0.040″ thick. it acts like a circlip the prevent a dial coming off the center diamiter piece and gives enough friction to allow the dial to be turned when needed but also turned to set dial as well.

David

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

For something like that getting the circle perpendicular to one end will be a bit tricky. So I would sketch the circle in the middle and then sketch just one side of the “path” and sweep those. Then use the mirror tool to do the other half. I’m assuming the two ends should actually be bent the same, if not then do separate paths for each half.

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

As I have drawn the path already I wondered if I can create a plane perpendicular to the end and create the circle there to sweep the path from.  Also I have created a duplicate entry on here so if possible can you delete it please. I didn’t wait long enough and clicked again. Sorry

David

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

The circle can actually go anywhere provided it is perpendicular to the path, if you drew the path symmetrically then placing the circle on the plane of symmetry is an option.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

If you use the trim tool in 2D sketch you can do all sorts of goofy shapes

This was sketched from 3 circles, trimmed, then mirrored then extruded

 

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Insert tracing image function

Sometimes you need to sort the picture aspect

[David George 1]

On David George 1 Said:

As I have drawn the path already I wondered if I can create a plane perpendicular to the end and create the circle there to sweep the path from.

David

Yes, one way to define a plane is as a percentage along a path (such as your sketch).  I’m not at my main computer, so can’t definitively check if that is available in Atom3D, I think it is.

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

I’ve just checked – plane definition along a path is available in Atom3D, which should make it simple to place a plane normal to the path, at any point along it.

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

Thanks for all the advice when you haven’t used all the bits of a program it’s a slow learning curve especialy at 72.

David

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