Spherical Spring

Recently I was struggling on a design where I needed a shape like a “Spherical Spring”. Failed many times so I took to YouTube to find the answer.

After watching a video for SolidWorks on “Spring Ball” something clicked and now I feel like I can make a spring in nearly any shape I need. You might say I caught Spring Fever (I am not above bad dad jokes).

I made this 7-minute video for others who may have similar needs:

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Chris,
Well done! Kudos to you!
This will definitely come in handy.
Thanks, Mike

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Very cool, makes me think of this:

image

That’s a neat trick to build techniques off of.

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Well done, Yepher. I learned a couple of clever techniques watching your excellent video.

Thanks for sharing.

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Glad it helps, the thing I am trying to figure out now is how to make a “drooping spring”.

I would like the filament here to sway between the two electrodes. I know I can copy and rotate and butt two together but looking for some other way to do it. Still searching for a way to do it.

I really wish I could revolve along a spline curve.

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@Yepher Is it possible to create an object and rotate spring around it?

Other than symmetrical shapes I mean.

Your best bet is conical spring, it’s been mentioned here many times

@MrJack88 The only way I’ve figured out so far is along straight path or where the “spring” has the same origin along a straight path. The three examples in the video was a break-through for me but all those are curved along the same Y-Axis where really just the radius changes. Conical spring is an example of this and is easy with this technique.

Revolve is not like sweep (although I wish it was). Sweep can work with a projected line or spline. Revolve does not handle that (from what I can tell).

I though maybe sweep (or loft) a circle but can’t figure out how I would cut the spiral.

Yes I feel the same
But I think shapr3d will be there eventually.

It’s a new app, so It does work other ways to give you close results of what you want for now.

@MrJack88 Oh, you’ve given me an idea… Thanks I think I know how to solve this…

Uhm… Glad to help :smile:

@Yepher are you an electrician?

No, just trying to learn Shapr3D and 3D design better to support my 3D printing hobby/addiction :wink:

@Yepher haha I see
I liked the bluetooth hud you made … Amazing :+1:

Thanks! I added a joystick and really like that better than buttons. I wish there were a key binding to rotate 90°. Half press would rotate and full swing would be to Top, Left, Right, Bottom etc and center click is “default orientation”. Working on a KiCad schematic now and fixing some bugs in the bluetooth driver but it works pretty good now for Mac/iPad.

I think for this to be super usable I would need more “key bindings” in shapr3d. Unfortunately I only have time to work on this stuff in evening and weekends so it is slow and stead progress usually.

You are pushing us hard :sweat_smile: But it will come :wink:

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@Yepher Very nice
Consider it as prototype.
Work on everything.
You’ll end up creating something people will need and will buy.

A joystick is a great idea also :+1:

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I made a drooped spring out of 4 separate small sections, angled, with the ends matched back up using align.

Edit: Revolving on a spline would be great. You can see in this picture where there is larger gaps at the point the spring sections meet each other.

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@NathanD very nice

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Thank you @NathanD that maybe the best way to do it. I was hoping for some other method but I think you have the current best solution there.

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@Yepher I missed that you had suggested this method.

Revolving on a spline would be the ticket.

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