Multiple helical parts in an assembly

[robinrau]

I have an assembly which uses a helical coil of round wire with several thousand turns. Obviously I can't detail a helical part with that many turns. I have tried to "fudge the part as an assembly with two identical coils of about ten turns each on a common axis with a distance mate between. I can produce the assembly model with no difficulty, but my problem begins when i insert the views into a drawing with a break line "hiding" the gap between the coils. the broken view displays just fine in wireframe mode, but the coils look like they have been through a meat grinder in HLR or HIG modes. I suspect the problem is in the interface between solid works and the video card as the geometry is fine in wireframe but not in other modes.

Any help from someone who has experienced a similar problem would be appreciated

 

[TheTick]

Is it really necessary to model the windings like that? Seems like an awful lot of wasted energy spent. Why not just model the envelope shape of the windings?

Good and evil: wrap them up and disguise it as people.

 

[robinrau]

Unfortunately I have to detail laser welds between the coils of this part and another concentric part in a higher level assembly, so I need to detail the turns.

 

[TheTick]

Yikes!

 

[TheTick]

I can only suggest modeling the coils in two configurations, one as a "working volume" and one config with the coils. That way, you don't need to show the detailed cols in all the views.

 

[MadMango]

Instead of individual wires, can you sweep a "flower-shaped" sketch that represents many wires? What you end up with is a model that has the grooves of the windings, but none of the intense computations.

I had to model a motor once, and I had to show windings. I was able to get away with a simple model with this trick.

MadMango
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