Spirals (3-D)

Sketch > Draw > Freehand > Spirals

Procedure:

To create individual spirals, proceed as follows.

1. Specify the start points of the centre axis. If you want to align the spiral to the current processing plane, right-click instead of determining a point. In this case, continue with point 4.
2. Specify the end point of the end point of the centre axis. Alternatively, you can also press the ESC key, and specify the direction of the centre axis. To do this, select the appropriate functions of the vector menu. The functions of the menu correspond to that of the Move, points/edges/surface menus. Then continue with point 4.
3. Define the start point of the spiral.
4. The Generate spiral window is displayed. By selecting the corresponding tabs, you can specify the parameters for the spiral here. This always displays a corresponding preview of the spiral in the drawing – based on the current settings in the tabs.
5. Click OK to exit the dialogue window.

The Generate spiral window

• Dimensions
  
  In this tab, you define the dimensions of the spiral. These are:

• the height
• the angle
• the start and end diameter

Please note that these values influence each other.

Click the button to activate the distance, resp. angle menu and take the appropriate value over from the drawing.

Use the and button to change the centre axis, resp. the start point.

• Form
  
  In this tab, you specify the form of the spiral. To do this, you can enter the number of turns (integral or decimal), the start and end angles as well as the Lead at start and end. Please note that these values influence each other mutually. In addition, you can invert both the direction and the rotation direction of the spiral.

• Type
  
  Spirals can be represented as a spline, a polyline or a continuous basket arch. Moreover, you can affect the representation precision of the spiral by specifying the number of points per full cycle or the tolerance. You can only specify the tolerance for continuous basket arches!

• Ends
  
  Here, you define whether you want the ends to be flat and, if so, at what transition angle - separately for the start and end of the spiral.

The total height of the spiral is 1/2 * number of revolutions * (lead at the start + lead at the end). 

Examples

 Related Topics

Curves (3-D) • 3-D Sketch (3-D) • Sketch Functions (3-D)