Solidworks 2008 - Helical spring with changing pitch

Here's a simple tutorial showing the use of "Configurations" to change the pitch of a spring.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• computer
• science
• solidworks
• spring
• CAD

[mcgiggity69]

I can't believe how much more user friendly this program is to use than the one I am learning about in my school right now! We use ProEngineer, and some of the features in it are WAY too complicated for a high schooler to be learning in my opinion. Assuming you're a beginner at the program, it would take anywhere between 5 to 7 minutes to make a helical spring(assuming that it won't give you any problems along the way), whereas with SW it was like 5 seconds. why cant my school use SW instead? xP

[gtrjim2008]

@mcgiggity69 Actually I'm a bit surprised that they use Pro/E at high schools. Solidworks is way easier.

[mcgiggity69]

@gtrjim2008 yeah i agree xP maybe its because of budget problems or something as far as I know. At my school ProE gives us nothing but problems, and some of the steps you have to take to complete a feature are just way too long and complicated sometimes. It also crashes when you have to translate a part onscreen and it closes the program randomly, but I think thats more of a hardware error than a software one. Its not a bad program, but I think its too confusing for high schoolers.

[gtrjim2008]

@mcgiggity69 I didn't say it's bad, Pro/E is one of the well respected packages, but i would choose SolidWorks or Inventor for high school and/or professionally too. During the past years I've used many CAD/CAE programs the most painful to use were NX and Pro/E while the most appealing and fast to get your job done with were SolidWorks and Inventor.

[jesussavesinner]

gtrjim2008, I can't hardly make out the detail in what you are clicking. Can you update the vid?

[gtrjim2008]

Thanks for all the comments guys, I'll update this video & I'll add a couple of new ones too in a few days.

[gaztoon17]

Stop giving this guy grief......his English is perfectly understandable!Thanks.

[mcgiggity69]

@gtrjim2008 i know, i wasnt trying to imply its a bad program, Pro/E is a really good program for engineers/designers, but for high school education I believe that it really shouldnt be used. I just think that my school chose it over SW because the school edition is free and SW isn't. My friend doesn't find it too surprising that they use Pro/E in our school, but then again he does CAD work for a living using Pro/E so he knows a lot more about the program than other students do.

[BWCmike]

how can you make a screw with changing cross sectional profile? sweep is needed to make twisted extrude it seams, and loft is needed to use two profiles. how can you have both?

[ale03000]

Ya he was speaking English I could understand it no problem. But how do you make the spring move with varying pitch in an assembly? Will it move accordingly if you place it in an assembly? Still I didn't know this thanks :].

[chillout144]

@b2xoz he is greek