I need an app to help with electrical coil windings in 3D

mikethedj4 · **Posted:** Sat Jul 13, 2013 1:17 am **(#1)**

Just to save time from my post I was considering doing this in Blender, but just winding the coil has been a bigger project than I wanted and expected, and haven't found a feasible way on setting the curves to have a specific distance in ft, minimum ft for that matter. Here's my post on BlenderArtists related to this project I'm talking about. (Called Problem Modeling An Intersecting Double Cone Coil)

Now I have 2 24ft 16AWG insulated copper wire. Is there anyway to model this corresponding to the amount of wire I have so I can set the diameter, coil windings, and height to relevate the best possible resonance this will give me with vortex based mathematics (rodin coil). I haven't made my rodin coils yet, the torus's will be in the mail within a week but should give me plenty of time to wind my larger Space Time Antenna to begin experimentation.

I believe there is a way with Blender, but if there isn't keep in mind I'm an Ubuntu Linux user (v10.04) so if there's an alternative application that anyone can suggest it'd be greatly appreciated. (I just want to assure my math is accurate before I wind my coils)

EDIT:
I'm using Ubuntu 10.04. Blender 2.5 series allows modeling in the metric system but not 2.49 which is what we're using cause we have an old graphics card. (Hence why not using Ubuntu 12.04 or Blender 2.5 otherwise I wouldn't have this problem). WebGL isn't an option cause of same reason.

Graphics Card:

Code: Select all

*-display UNCLAIMED
description: VGA compatible controller
product: 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device
vendor: Intel Corporation

Full Computer Specs:

Code: Select all

description: Computer
width: 32 bits
*-core
description: Motherboard
physical id: 0
*-memory
description: System memory
physical id: 0
size: 2012MiB
*-cpu
product: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.00GHz
vendor: Intel Corp.
physical id: 1
bus info: cpu@0
version: 15.2.7
size: 2GHz
width: 32 bits
capabilities: fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe up pebs bts cid
configuration: id=0
*-cache:0
description: L1 cache
physical id: 0
size: 8KiB
*-cache:1
description: L2 cache
physical id: 1
size: 512KiB
*-pci
description: Host bridge
product: 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 100
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: driver=agpgart-intel
resources: irq:0 memory:e8000000-ebffffff(prefetchable)
*-display UNCLAIMED
description: VGA compatible controller
product: 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 03
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:e0000000-e7ffffff(prefetchable) memory:ee000000-ee07ffff
*-usb:0
description: USB Controller
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:16 ioport:d800(size=32)
*-usb:1
description: USB Controller
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.1
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:19 ioport:d000(size=32)
*-usb:2
description: USB Controller
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.2
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.2
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:18 ioport:d400(size=32)
*-usb:3
description: USB Controller
product: 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.7
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.7
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ehci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:23 memory:ee080000-ee0803ff
*-pci
description: PCI bridge
product: 82801 PCI Bridge
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1e
bus info: pci@0000:00:1e.0
version: 82
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci bus_master
resources: ioport:c000(size=4096) memory:ec000000-edffffff memory:80000000-800fffff(prefetchable)
*-communication
description: Modem
product: BCM4212 v.90 56k modem
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 6
bus info: pci@0000:01:06.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=serial latency=32
resources: irq:18 memory:ed002000-ed002fff ioport:c000(size=16)
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: BCM4401 100Base-T
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 9
bus info: pci@0000:01:09.0
logical name: eth0
version: 01
serial: 00:08:74:c6:78:25
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=b44 driverversion=2.0 ip=192.168.1.138 latency=32 multicast=yes
resources: irq:17 memory:ed000000-ed001fff memory:80000000-80003fff(prefetchable)
*-isa
description: ISA bridge
product: 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) LPC Interface Bridge
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.0
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: isa bus_master
configuration: latency=0
*-ide
description: IDE interface
product: 82801DB (ICH4) IDE Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.1
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: ide bus_master
configuration: driver=ata_piix latency=0
resources: irq:18 ioport:1f0(size= ioport:3f6 ioport:170(size= ioport:376 ioport:f000(size=16) memory:80100000-801003ff
*-serial UNCLAIMED
description: SMBus
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.3
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.3
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: latency=0
resources: ioport:500(size=32)
*-multimedia
description: Multimedia audio controller
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.5
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.5
version: 02
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=Intel ICH latency=0
resources: irq:17 ioport:e000(size=256) ioport:e400(size=64) memory:ee081000-ee0811ff memory:ee082000-ee0820ff

Specs Image:

Attachment:

sta-coil-specs.png [ 42.93 KiB | Viewed 2619 times ]

saulgoode · **Posted:** Sat Jul 13, 2013 2:36 am **(#2)**

You would be better off using a CAD program based on constructive solid geometry (Blender is based on mesh modelling). BRLCAD is extremely powerful and should handle your coil problem quite easily (tutorial PDF).

mikethedj4 · **Posted:** Sat Jul 13, 2013 1:42 pm **(#3)**

I need a mesh modeller because of how the coils will be wound from beginning to end. I updated my post with a specs image of my project.

Lurifax73 · **Posted:** Sat Jul 13, 2013 3:27 pm **(#4)**

I playing around with different curvs, Screew and array modifier. This one I use Curve Path and extruding.

Odinbc · **Posted:** Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:06 pm **(#5)**

If you can do this, GAP Animated Spring technique maybe it will help you figure out how to do your spring transform.

mikethedj4 · **Posted:** Sat Jul 13, 2013 9:44 pm **(#6)**

ooooooo thanks that's def gonna be fun for a future project. It won't work with this project, but gave me some ideas. Thanks

Lurifax73 · **Posted:** Sun Jul 14, 2013 1:41 am **(#7)**

Try "Lattice".
I got this result when I try.
Make you coil on Screwmodifier.

Add one Lattice Shift+A. Parent with Ctrl+P.
You can now scale up/down your coil

Rod · **Joined:** May 16, 2010 **Posts:** 14735 **Location:** USA

You can also use Hexagon Mike. It is no longer offered for free though. 19 dollars now i think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHh2iBZEYK4