How to draw springs

[Parsnip]

Please can peolpe advise the best way to draw springs - specifically extension springs with ends at 90 deg from each other and one ending in a loop and one in a straight piece of wire.
Thanks in advance

 

[im4cad]

You can create the main spring as a helical sweep, and add at the ends some extra protrusions (using "sweep" option and some datum curves created before) for the shapes you are looking for, or another possibility would be to create a datum(s) curve(s) and after that a swept protrusion.

im4cad
Pro Design Services, Inc.

http://www.cadproe.com/pds/home.asp

 

[peglor]

A helical sweep with ends normal to axis rather than normal to trajectory will make it easier to add ends on to your spring. It is more awkward to add ends to normal to traj springs as the ends of the spring are normal to the helical path of the spring rather than the axis through the spring, making it difficult to locate a datum plane.

For a lot of custom ends its easier to use a curve to define the path of a sweep. The helical curve can be generated from equation using a cylindrical coordinate system.

By making datum points at the ends of the helical curve, more sketches can be added for the ends, using the point as the only datum to locate the sketch. This will allow the ends to move up and down as the spring length is changed, as well as allowing the possibility of making sketches saved seperately which can be imported to add different ends to different springs.