Solid Edge – Spring Designer – Help!

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Anyone understand how SE’s Extension Spring Designer tool works?

It’s in the ‘Tools->Engineering Reference’ collection.  Looks straightforward.  In this example I’ve told it to calculate the load needed to extend a given spring:

Problem is when I press calculate, I get a red FAIL error and SE won’t create the spring.

 

The other design options fail too.  Either my spring requirements are breaking a hidden rule or maybe I don’t understand what I’m doing.

The spring I want is nothing special, a hooked extension spring 5mm diameter about 15mm long fully extended in 1mm wire.

The tool isn’t disabled: SE’s default settings for a large spring work:

Result: Green Pass!

 

Any suggestions?

Dave

 

 

 

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

Tried to access this tool, but I must be doing something wrong, as it appears to be disabled for me. Odd, because I’m on the same version as you, according to what you posted in your Enigma thread the other day.

Stumped!

Rob

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Try it with an assembly loaded.  I now find it’s not available for me whilst working on a part.  Odd eh?

Dave

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

Doesn’t the Help button do so?

[David Jupp]

On David Jupp Said:

Doesn’t the Help button do so?

Er, what Help Button?

With a part open for edit I looked Engineering Reference up with the command search and got this result:

 

Greyed out and tagged ‘This command is disabled in the current product state’.   Might be because the tool creates a new part, and dropping onto an existing one is daft.

Switch to an Assembly edit, and it comes alive:

 

If I could get the designer to generate a spring, I guess it could be added to the assembly.

Not worried about getting the tool to start, it’s that once designer is running, my spring parameters won’t make a valid spring.

Got a book about spring design, heavy going, and then the family dropped in for a visit.  Nice to them except the afternoon is gone!

Dave

 

 

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

Managed to get to the tool, and can get a green PASS if the number of coils is specified (actually defaults to 10) and the hook type is one of the things you are looking for?? Not sure if this helps?

Options selected were:

EDIT – whilst creating this post, Dave posted again – maybe the Help referred to is the little question mark near the Pass/Fail result?

Rob

[David JuppParticipant @davidjupp51506]

I was thinking more of the button at bottom right of the dialogue, with Help written on it….

[David Jupp]

On David Jupp Said:

I was thinking more of the button at bottom right of the dialogue, with Help written on it….

Doh!  Hidden in plain sight.   Doesn’t help though, it just lists what’s on the tool anyway with no explanation of how the parameters interact.

Remembering my requirement is ‘The spring I want is nothing special, a hooked extension spring 5mm diameter about 15mm long fully extended in 1mm wire.’

Playing around this is the smallest PASS spring I could make, 55mm long, way too big:

The spring is part of the socket assembly, and it’s gigantic in comparison:

Looks like the SE Spring designer may not be able to generate small springs.  I guess the parameters have to be met within the Lo, Lp, and Lf dimensions, with a minimum wire diameter of 1mm (too big for me really), and meet the other spring requirements.

Possibly I can scale a big one down.

Maybe the compression spring tool will get closer.  Whilst springs can be drawn manually the helix and curved hooks are time consuming.

Dave

 

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

Dave – try changing the material. I’ve just swapped to phosphor bronze and you get a choice of much smaller diameters.

Rob

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Scaling works, x0.15, as does hooking the spring in place with SE’s steering wheel tool.

New, problem.  Now the result is on screen, it’s apparent the sockets are very cramped.  The whole model is about half scale, causing various problems.   Looks OK, except I might have to start again.   I suspect simply scaling all the parts by x2 will break most of the assembly constraints.   SE doesn’t appear to support scaling an assembly with sub-assemblies all in one go.

Dave

 

 

[Grindstone Cowboy]

On Grindstone Cowboy Said:

Dave – try changing the material. I’ve just swapped to phosphor bronze and you get a choice of much smaller diameters.

Rob

Excellent! I’ll try it.

Many thanks,

Dave

[Author]

Posts