How to create a Spiral ...
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There is no tool or Ruby I know of that can create a spiral or spring, or I would be using it now, instead of this way I developed. It is simple but can get tedious, and you need the Pipe-along-path Ruby installed. Do not use the [follow-me] tool as it distorts the ends.
1: Determine the overall diameter, length and number of turns in the spiral, lets say a spring 2 inches diam X 10 in. long with 20 turns.
2: Define the diameter of the wire, say .1 inch
3: Calculate the diam and length of the centerline of the wire, in this case 1.9 in diam X 9.9 in long (same 20 turns)
4: Caclculate the turn pitch (space between turns), in this case, .495 inch (9.9 in / 20 turns)
5: In SU draw a circle in space .95 in radius. Delete the face.
NOTE: Keep the number of side facets as low as practicable. SU defaults to 24 sides. Lets use 12 sides in this example.
If you are new to SU, these are the steps to do that. Select the [circle] tool and immediately (before you click the center point) type 12S and press <enter>, click the center point and start a circle, then type .95 <enter>. SU will draw a 12 sided 1.9 in diameter circle.6: Select and copy the perimeter 12 times to a distance of .495 inch. You need 13 circles .0413 in apart.
Select the perimeter, then the [copy/move] tool. Click on the circle, press [ctrl] and move the copy along the springs centerline axis out a bit, type .495 <enter> to move the copy .495 in away, then type 12/ <enter> to make 12 copies within the space. Total of 13 circles.7: Make the 13 circles a group. Not a component.
8: Now the tedious part. DO NOT EDIT THE GROUP. At a vertex endpoint on the first circle (#1), draw a single line to the next vertex endpoint in the next circle (#2)in the direction you want. Make very sure you draw between endpoints. Do this in turn from point #2 to circle #3, etc. till you make 13 line segments in a spiral, not 12. You now have 1 complete turn of the wires centerline.
9: Delete the circle group, but not the lines you just drew. Ensure the lines are contiguous by selecting the first segment and double-clicking on it. All 13 lines should highlight. If not, delete the first non-highlighted line and redraw it between endpoints.
10: With all 13 segments highlighted, open the P-A-P tool (in Plugins) and define the outside diameter of the wire (.1 in), inside diam = 0 and the number of sides, again keep it low, say 8 or 12, and then press <enter>. You now have a group of 1 turn of your spring.
11: Select the turn, select the [copy/move] tool, click on the start end of the turn, click [ctrl] then the axis key and drag the copy till it snaps to the tail end of the first turn. Now type 19X <enter> to complete your 20 turn spring.
12: You can either leave it as 20 groups, or if you want copies of it, explode all 20 groups, then make the whole spring a component. You may also notice the overall dimensions are not exact, which is due to SU's internal level of accuracy. You can adjust the overall length with the scale tool, but not too much as to distort the wire diameter shape. If high accuracy is important, measure the error and redraw with the necessary corrections.
It takes about 5 minutes to make a spring. Size doesn't matter, here anyway!
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i use curve maker for drawing a helix
there's another one specifically for making a helix and i think it's called helix.rb?
[edit] oh, and you can draw about a gazillion helixes in the time it took joel to type that up
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newbies should get used to search the forum before asking a question that has been answered ten times over. if you enter spiral in the search box it will return more than 30 pages of posts dealing with it. one is bound to answer your question.
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What about the "Screw" .rb..? What does that do ?
OK Jeff, Curvemaker it is, thanks for the info.
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I use the following spring tool
C:\Program Files\Google\Google SketchUp 7\Plugins\Spring Tool\help.html
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@unknownuser said:
I use the following spring tool
C:\Program Files\Google\Google SketchUp 7\Plugins\Spring Tool\help.html
Cool ...Original...Thanks !
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@unknownuser said:
[edit] oh, and you can draw about a gazillion helixes in the time it took joel to type that up
Hey
Just because I 2 finger type doesn't mean it took me that long. Only 30 minutes. Enough time for a million, maybe, but not a gazillion for sure. Even on a fast PC.And it's "helices".... so there!
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@jgb said:
@unknownuser said:
[edit] oh, and you can draw about a gazillion helixes in the time it took joel to type that up
Hey
Just because I 2 finger type doesn't mean it took me that long. Only 30 minutes. Enough time for a million, maybe, but not a gazillion for sure. Even on a fast PC.And it's "helices".... so there!
haha
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Oops! Did not realize that the address I added in the previous post did not go to the web site. So here is the correct web site.
http://www.freesketchupplugins.co.uk/springtool.php
Ken
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@unknownuser said:
Oops! Did not realize that the address I added in the previous post did not go to the web site. So here is the correct web site.
http://www.freesketchupplugins.co.uk/springtool.php
Ken
he,,, its plugin springtool make use sketchup 7
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