using springs in a model

[mbostonsprint]

Does anyone have good methods for placing and aligning springs in an assembly? My current method is to make a plane coincident with the end of a ground/closed compression spring end (in this case), and sketch a circle in around the OD, then put in a point for center, and try to use Align command with whatever feature it mates with. Sometimes haphazard, and align seems to give inconsistent results, in terms of which part moves.

Any observations welcome. Thanks --

[Beyondforce]

Will you please make a screencast, it will be very helpful.

Ben.

[TrippyLighting]

That's what the explicit joint origins in the Assemble menus are for.

When you don't have geometry in a model that the implicit joint origins can snap to that would allow proper assembly.

Creating the circle in the Spring model is a good start. Instead of aligning to the center point of that circle you'd place a joint origin in the spring component that you can easily snap to.