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Old 16th June 2006, 07:01 PM   #1
Hawk
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Question A metal spring

Following the instructions in AC3D manual (Page 19) on how to make a spring. Entering 3600-12 segments and .03 (The smallest square is being use with standard grid setting) in the revolve, I get a nice spring however it is not very tall. I have two quesitons. Nor do I understand what is going on.
1. How does set the box (degree, segments,and offset) to increase the height of the spring (meaning to add coils)? And produce a nice (Average) looking spring
2. And how does one arrive at a proper setting to get the right coil spacing, meaning what does the offset setting actual do, (I just kept changing it till the spring looks somewhat right (Not even close to the 1.25 setting shown in the manual), I want to know what it is doing, in relation to the grid.
What I am saying is I don't understand how to set any of the revolve setting to get what I need.
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Old 19th June 2006, 01:30 PM   #2
captainj2410
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Default Re: A metal spring

First off, was the number supposed to be 3600 or 360?

The rotation number is how many degrees around the selected axis all of the extruded surfaces revolve. By increasing the number of segments, each extrusion revolves less. If the shape is set to revolve 360 degrees in 12 segments, each segment will revolve 30 degrees. The offset is how far up or down each extrusion travels around the rotation axis. Try this for a good spring:

Object location: 1,0,0

Rotate 3600 degrees around Y axis

360 segments

offset .1

This will give a ten degree rotation for each segment with a nice curvature.

I don't know if I helped at all, but if I did...well...I got lucky...
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Old 19th June 2006, 05:18 PM   #3
Hawk
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Red face Re: A metal spring

Quote:
Originally Posted by captainj2410
First off, was the number supposed to be 3600 or 360?

The rotation number is how many degrees around the selected axis all of the extruded surfaces revolve. By increasing the number of segments, each extrusion revolves less. If the shape is set to revolve 360 degrees in 12 segments, each segment will revolve 30 degrees. The offset is how far up or down each extrusion travels around the rotation axis. Try this for a good spring:

Object location: 1,0,0

Rotate 3600 degrees around Y axis

360 segments

offset .1

This will give a ten degree rotation for each segment with a nice curvature.

I don't know if I helped at all, but if I did...well...I got lucky...
Thanks, it did help I understand it now and produced a spring, however what does the Object location setting do? It appears to work completely without it.
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Old 20th June 2006, 10:53 AM   #4
Titus
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Default Re: A metal spring

It helped me too
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Old 20th June 2006, 11:05 AM   #5
captainj2410
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Default Re: A metal spring

Object location was just an example of where to start. It would have been the "Move To" coordinates. It wasn't really necessary, just a reference point.
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