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Check out this toroidal helix

8 REPLIES 8
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Message 1 of 9
cwhetten
2096 Views, 8 Replies

Check out this toroidal helix

I have seen a few threads over the years regarding creating a coil that follows a circular path (think of a slinky) rather than a straight line (the only option for the Coil feature). I wanted to see if I could create one myself, so I searched through the forum and on the wider web, but all of the solutions that I found were half-baked, inaccurate, or just too cumbersome.

I remember some years ago seeing an Inventor modeling challenge to create a coil whose axis of revolution traces a circle so that the coil returns to itself and creates one continuous solid. I’ll call it a toroidal helix (or is it a helical toroid?). With this vague memory floating around up there, I knew there was some way to get what I was after. So, I decided to give it a go to see what I could come up with. I think I tried about 8 different approaches before I settled on one that I could get behind.

The attached file is the one I finally came up with. I know there are other users out there who have wanted a way to model one of these beasts, so I have decided to post it here. Also, I just think it’s pretty cool.

I eventually tracked down the Inventor challenge that I thought I vaguely remembered. It is the September 2004 challenge found here:

http://teknigroup.com/worldcup/worldcupfiles.asp?offset=130

The solution offered is actually quite brilliant. It is simple, elegant, but unfortunately, not parametric in any form. The sinusoidal spline has to be manually repaired if you want change the number of revolutions of the coil. The one I have posted does not suffer this disadvantage as it is fully parametric (see the Engineer’s Notebook in the part).

This part is a complete toroid of a helix, which is really only valuable as a “gee whiz look at that purdy shape” sort of a thing. But, the approach I used is adaptable to make a helix that follows a semicircular path. There have been numerous posts over the years about how to do this. In fact, that particular task is even easier than what I went through to get the complete toroid.

Feel free to use this part in whatever way you want (it is IV2010). Enjoy!

-cwhetten
8 REPLIES 8
Message 2 of 9
Anonymous
in reply to: cwhetten

Excellent usage of the Bend and combine features! We did not have those
commands way back then. Thanks for revisiting the Challenge.

One question... is there enough interest in reviving the challenge for
North American users. It seems that the German challenges have died off
in December 2009. Maybe Bernhard is taking a Sabbatical.

Should we start some American challenges? Let me know and I'll start
setting some of them up again.
--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert

Subscribe to the free "The Creative Inventor Magazine now available at:
http://teknigroup.com/CI-Subscribe-Login.asp
Message 3 of 9
Anonymous
in reply to: cwhetten

Hi Dennis,
Bernhard is still there, with great engagement. But there's a new site,
perhaps the notice about it got lost.

http://www.ivngwc.org/

Walter


"Dennis Jeffrey" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:6370684@discussion.autodesk.com...
Excellent usage of the Bend and combine features! We did not have those
commands way back then. Thanks for revisiting the Challenge.

One question... is there enough interest in reviving the challenge for
North American users. It seems that the German challenges have died off
in December 2009. Maybe Bernhard is taking a Sabbatical.

Should we start some American challenges? Let me know and I'll start
setting some of them up again.
--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert

Subscribe to the free "The Creative Inventor Magazine now available at:
http://teknigroup.com/CI-Subscribe-Login.asp
Message 4 of 9
Anonymous
in reply to: cwhetten

Yes, but he stopped posting on the original site In December.
--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert

Subscribe to the free "The Creative Inventor Magazine now available at:
http://teknigroup.com/CI-Subscribe-Login.asp
Message 5 of 9
BMiller63
in reply to: cwhetten

Well done!
I have no idea when I'd ever need to refer to this, but I'm going to squirrel it away for "someday" just the same.
Thanks for sharing.
Message 6 of 9
ivngwc
in reply to: cwhetten

Hi Dennis,
Yes, I stopped with posting on the site http://teknigroup.com/worldcup/.
But not without a reason:
In 2009 we have only one or two participiants of the challange out of the USA.
Have a look at the enclosed screenshoot of the uploads in 2009.
The most of the participiants, who used your server in 2009 also participate in 2010 with the new system.
We have participants out of Italy, Thailand, Russia, Danmark and so on. But nobody out of the US (like 2009).

In October 2009 I have made an announcement, that a new website will start on January with the IVNGWC.
To handle two (or including this discussion group three) websites is to much work for me.

The new website is http://www.ivngwc.org.
The website, all tasks and the rules are also aviable in English, German and Portuguese. Every task is downloaded more then 250 times every month.

I think it is not nessesary to start a second challenge only for the US folks.
But the US folks are welcome to participate the current IVNGWC.

Best regards from good old Germany,
and CU at the challenge!
Bernhard Fetzer
Message 7 of 9
Jonny.Murty
in reply to: cwhetten

Many thanks for sharing this - i just used it in an assembly for a spring energised metal c-ring. It was so easy to modify - you've just saved me a lot of time. Thanks a lot.

Message 8 of 9

This can now be done with an Equation Curve 3D sketch and then Sweep.

Message 9 of 9
kavace
in reply to: TheCADWhisperer

kavace_0-1615375573270.png

 

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