How to do simulation/animate for a spring?

make your spring associative to the parts it mates to and animate thier movement it should update for the animation.

I did something similar with a spring clip asociated the clip with a part that was only planes and an axis and rotated the empty part to cause the spring clip to update.

Corey

If you don't need to watch it change length, make some configurations of the spring that have different values for the pitch of the helix.

WT

check out

There is some great answers to your question there

I'm by no means a pro and had to do the same recently. To get the job done, I modeled half the spring, created an assembly of two halves and mating them to leave just linear motion. I then inserted that assembly into my main assembly as a flexible assembly and mated each end of the spring assembly to different parts in my main assembly. I can not move given parts and watch the spring compress and extend based on the space available for it. True the spring middle interferes with itself when compressed, but I'm the only one who knows!

I made a small example and will send it to you. I will send the files and the AVI.

Corey

I make springs with the length driven by then length of a segment in a

3D sketch. You could take such a model and associate the sketch endpoints to parts in assembly.

I have a torsion spring model at the following location:

It's length is driven by a line in a sketch. It could readily be modified into an extension or compression spring.