Adaptive springs and variable constraints

[Anonymous]

What is the best possible way to make this function like it would in reality?

[Frank-Oosterwaal]

Hi,

Neil Cross has a good video on his youtube channel on how to make this work

Look here

[Anonymous]

Hey,

Thanks voor the feedback but I was wondering if it was possible without the animation and just in the assembly.

best regards,

B

[Frank-Oosterwaal]

Hi,

Yes it is possible.

I'm not sure it will rebuild by itself but if you hit "update" it will.

[JDMather]

What is your design intent?

Maybe a Spring Force in Dynamic Simulation environment is what you need.

[Anonymous]

My intention was to let the top plate along with the spring move within the degrees of freedom.  

Limited constraints and adaptive spring should result in a movement simular to a real situation without having to play it as a movie.

[DRoam · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous, as promised, here's a re-post of the screencast, and my files are attached as well. The way I modeled the spring is maybe not the most proper way, but it works.

As I described, this isn't a perfect solution because the spring still doesn't live-update as you drag the top plate, but it does allow you to free-drag the top plate and see the spring adapt as soon as you release the plate. This is possible because, rather than using constraints to drive the adaptivity, you're simply pushing the geometry (i.e. location) of the top plate into the spring part. This doesn't constrain the top plate from moving. Once you release the top plate, the spring instantly updates.

[Anonymous]

Thanks a lot for the effort!