Cable coiled up.

[raymondwganderson]

Hello Folks,  Attached are a few pics of a motor done in Solid Edge / Substance painter  my question for here is would it be possible in Max to form a sort of coil of SWA cable. [ as shown in 1 pic ] I would like to attach 1 end to the motor and have the other end loosely coiled up and lying against the motor.  not sure if that is even possible. Have also posted the question on the Solid Edge forum hopefully it will be possible in 1 [ or both ] softwares.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

This would be fairly easy and is almost the same I would assume for both Solid and 3ds.

For the most control you could free draw a nurbs curve in 3ds going from the motor and into a coil, then use the rendering in the modify panel to give it a mesh thickness. Or you could import a pre-made nurbs from solid to 3ds and then do this, though I would go with the former.

You could also create a helix in 3ds from the splines menu and then use various warps to give it a more random coil, though this could take longer depending on how random you want it.

For solid could you create a nurbs curve and then loft a circle curve along it to create a cable?

I mainly use use Rhino3D, but I assume the workflow is roughly similar.

Edit: you could also use loft in 3ds, but it would give you less control for this senario than the other options.

I hope this is of some help.

[leeminardi · Accepted solution]

1. Create a helix with a base radius equal to the largest loop of the coiled cable and a top radius  closer to the smallest loop radius of the coiled cable.  The height should be the final height of the coil and set the number of turn to 10 or more
2. Scale the helix by 500 (i.e., 5 times taller) in z.  This will simplify selecting individual loops of the helix in a side view for editing. 
3. Convert the helix to an Editable Spline and increase the Interpolation Steps as desired (I use 12).
4. Go to the Segment sub-element and a side view and then select the segments for one loop. Move them horizontal a bit and rotate them by a small angle about z then the x or y axes.
5. Repeat step 4 for other loops with random moves and rotations.
6. Got to the top view and adjust vertices that are obviously out of line.
7. Scale the spline back to 100 in Z.
8. Apply a sweep modifier that references a circle of the wire diameter.

Note by scaling up and down in Z it is assured that the swept shape will not be scaled in the final model.

[raymondwganderson]

Sorry for the late reply, many thanks for the advice.  I actually managed to do it in Solid Edge although it is good to know how I can also do it in Max.  Cheers

[raymondwganderson]

I  have managed to do it in Solid Edge including the steel armour and the conductors.  I have given it a more random look ie not perfect circles  Thanks for the info on how to create the style you show, much appreciated  Cheers.