bhamze Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 goose, i couldnt get your site based on that. im sure i just typed something wrong. To create a plane at an angle you need a plane as a reverence and either an edge or an axis(which could be 2 points). Out of curiosity are you trying to rotate the plane at the end of your helix? What are you trying to draw here with the helix? there are other ways if you are trying to draw a spring or something similar. Matt, here is the link. It took awhile to figure out. The plane he created looks fine to me. What do you think?http://www.goosesworld.com/sw/plane_1.swf Goose, Whats wrong with the plane you created. It looks fine. If the size of the plane is at question, this can me adjusted. Place pointer on edge of plane, you will see dots appear at corners. Left mouse click (hold) and drag plane to desired shape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift1313 Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 thanks bill. goose, the plane you have created is correct. Its based on the tangent to the helix at that point. Realistically your coil cross section would be at this angle. You can play with multi pitch options in the helix settings but there is another way. You can create a coil using the sweep function. I create a sketch on the front plane that is a circle offset from the origin. This is my coil cross section. In a second sketch i drew a straight line vertically. This will be my sweep path and can be any 2d or 3d curve as well. In sweep options you have to select twist along path and apply your settings and voila. When you open the file just roll to the end of part and then edit the sweep to see the options. swspring.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhamze Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 thanks bill. goose, the plane you have created is correct. Its based on the tangent to the helix at that point. Realistically your coil cross section would be at this angle. You can play with multi pitch options in the helix settings but there is another way. You can create a coil using the sweep function. I create a sketch on the front plane that is a circle offset from the origin. This is my coil cross section. In a second sketch i drew a straight line vertically. This will be my sweep path and can be any 2d or 3d curve as well. In sweep options you have to select twist along path and apply your settings and voila. When you open the file just roll to the end of part and then edit the sweep to see the options. Thanks Matt, I thought it was correct. Good advice on the sweep function. Goose, Attached is a video link of how I repaired your sketch. Hope it helps out. Click watch in HD for better resolution, its blurry otherwise. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyrhegIovvA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8Goose Posted July 7, 2010 Author Share Posted July 7, 2010 goose, i couldnt get your site based on that. im sure i just typed something wrong. To create a plane at an angle you need a plane as a reverence and either an edge or an axis(which could be 2 points). Out of curiosity are you trying to rotate the plane at the end of your helix? What are you trying to draw here with the helix? there are other ways if you are trying to draw a spring or something similar. Hi Matt... Maybe I am getting way off base here, but all I am trying to do is 'fix' this broken part by following the instructions posted by Bhamze in post #14. Half way through those instructions, I need to create a plane to replace the one I deleted earlier in construction (not knowing that the plane was an integral part of my object). Selecting the helix and end point places a plane at the correct origin but at a wierd angle. Thanks Goose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8Goose Posted July 7, 2010 Author Share Posted July 7, 2010 Goose, Whats wrong with the plane you created. It looks fine. If the size of the plane is at question, this can me adjusted. Place pointer on edge of plane, you will see dots appear at corners. Left mouse click (hold) and drag plane to desired shape. Err... the spring was drawn from a top plane circle to define the diameter of the spring and then swept using a circle 90 degrees to the first circle and sitting on a quadrant point. (hope that makes sense). Therefore I would expect the new plane to be exactly like the (standard) RIGHT plane and centered on the spring but as you can see it is a strange angle to the helix. I'm about to watch the video and then fix this part... I have run out of hair to pull out! Cheers Goose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD Mather Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 I haven't looked at your files or examples - but for a spring wire section to be truelly round the profile should be on a plane perpendicular to the start of the helix - not on one of the base planes. This becomes more obvious when you use a crossection profile other than a circle and do additional work - like extrude or thicken end face. It usually is not a noticable difference and since springs are purchased off-the-shelf.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhamze Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 Goose, JD is right. However, to fix your sketch in which it was created see attached link. Ignore the modification of the helix/spiral, this was done for view manipulation purposes. In video I've created two planes. The first plane is the correct plane for creating geometry on a helix/spiral. The second plane is perpendicular to the plane in which you created the circle for helix/spiral feature. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm4jZHPcHdg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8Goose Posted July 7, 2010 Author Share Posted July 7, 2010 How am I ever going to repay you guys? Watching the video worked, thank you! Shift & JD... Yes of course, a straight section would result in an ellipse. Duh So much work and resources for such a small part... I can now carry on, thanks again gents... you are all legends... Goose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8Goose Posted July 7, 2010 Author Share Posted July 7, 2010 I really don't want to be bugging you guys for every little damn thing, but I have just spent over 1/2 an hour trying to mate two parts in my assembly and I can't find the answer in help. All I am trying to do is mate the bottom face of the gear (top right) with the top face of the stack (bottom left). I can't figure out how to select the center of the gear since the circle I used to create it is no longer there (I may have deleted it) and the part is no longer recognised as a circle as far as attributes (like center) are concerned. I have tried drawing centerlines on both parts but can't figure out how to move the part from cl to cl. Just as well this is a no-end-date job as buddy may end up waiting forever... *sigh* Please enlighten me, thanks... Goose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD Mather Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 I don't have SolidWorks on my current machine so I might not state this exactly right but, click on the black arrow next to the word SolidWorks upper left of the screen. Go to View>Temporary Axis. There should now be axis visible in the parts to Mate. Hold down the Ctrl key and select both axis and then select Mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8Goose Posted July 8, 2010 Author Share Posted July 8, 2010 Last question post for the night... I need to go for a walk. Remember this part? I now want to simply draw a short pin that fits inside the spring and extends out the end by a bit. I inserted a new plane from the top plane, offset a certain distance and want my pin to start there (plane 2 in the picture). Saying as the spring consists of only three items (profile, helix & sweep) I can't find any geometry that will let me find the center of the spring at plane 2 to sketch my circle (pin). Even if I draw the pin as a separate part and bring it into the assembly, I still can't figure out how to mate the two parts as there is nothing to select on the spring that the pin can relate to. I'm at a complete loss and as a little humour for you guys, the gear issue above and this little pin have consumed over three hours of my life Thanks for looking.... Goose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD Mather Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 Make the sketches for the spring visible. Do you have a line sketched in the center of the spring? If so, use that line to create an Axis. If not, sketch the line, then use that line to create an Axis. (Under Reference Geometry.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhamze Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 Last question post for the night... I need to go for a walk. Remember this part? I now want to simply draw a short pin that fits inside the spring and extends out the end by a bit. I inserted a new plane from the top plane, offset a certain distance and want my pin to start there (plane 2 in the picture). Saying as the spring consists of only three items (profile, helix & sweep) I can't find any geometry that will let me find the center of the spring at plane 2 to sketch my circle (pin). Even if I draw the pin as a separate part and bring it into the assembly, I still can't figure out how to mate the two parts as there is nothing to select on the spring that the pin can relate to. I'm at a complete loss and as a little humour for you guys, the gear issue above and this little pin have consumed over three hours of my life Thanks for looking.... Goose Goose, Check out video link. Let me know if you need a better explanation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9E78K0RPuo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8Goose Posted July 8, 2010 Author Share Posted July 8, 2010 Hi all... The walk was a good idea to think and relax, I came back and played around with SW some more and with JD's temporary axis suggestion, life was once again in color. Thanks JD, that (for me) is the absolute key to mating . After that, I had a good couple of hours assembling parts and made progress. It's slow, but its happening. I need to watch your video a few more times to understand it Bhamze, but thank you very much! Onward ho... Goose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhamze Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 Hi all... The walk was a good idea to think and relax, I came back and played around with SW some more and with JD's temporary axis suggestion, life was once again in color. Thanks JD, that (for me) is the absolute key to mating . After that, I had a good couple of hours assembling parts and made progress. It's slow, but its happening. I need to watch your video a few more times to understand it Bhamze, but thank you very much! Onward ho... Goose Your welcome Goose. I cant speak for everyone else but I think most of us enjoy helping out. Good luck with your studies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8Goose Posted July 8, 2010 Author Share Posted July 8, 2010 So I guess its a little early to be talking about my grand plans to use SW to drive a CAD/CAM mill and lathe ... Baby steps.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shift1313 Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 When you get to that point we can help:) I used solidCAM and run a haas 4 axis mill. I also use mastercam. I know bill does the same i think with mastercam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8Goose Posted July 8, 2010 Author Share Posted July 8, 2010 Awesome... Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8Goose Posted July 8, 2010 Author Share Posted July 8, 2010 Hi Bhamze... me again. I was following your video step-by-step and all has gone well up until the point where you hide the frame and axis then proceed with the assembly. Did I miss something? During the assembly it seems like the axis is coincident with the center of the spring although I didn't see when that happened. Appreciate your comments. Thanks Goose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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