The 5th Weekly Power-User Challenge (May 19th, 2017): Straighten an Imported Wire

No different topic.. Just give us some time to put our thinking caps on. This certainly has my interest and no doubt someone will come up with something groundbreaking.

I have downloaded the spring.....I am just thinking about how to proceed.

Up to everyone else though....

Yesterday was Mother's Day....maybe they are getting over their mother's day hangovers....

LOL  Just kidding.

lol - Don't worry about the start time - by the time the finish line is in sight you'll be seeing results....  Definitely don't replace it, even if we just have one person responding with a solution....

..the easiest way I can think of is the find the center and get the length..?   (added sldprt file)

That was where my first thoughts were going.

Ok, here is my submission

So, explanation:

I used face curves (specifically 4) to create some curves along the length of the spring. 

Then used 2 surface lofts and an intersection curve to create a curve along the centerline of the part.

Used measure tool linked to a global variable to get length of spine.

Extrude is linked to length of spine.

No, its not fancy like some of you will do, but it got the job done.  I learned a lot here.   Will make some things easier in my actual job.

I would get the Volume value from SWx measure and divide it by the cross-sectional area to get the length.

Here is one based on volume. Yes, an equation. Need a better mathematical mind than mine in order to figure out if this is correct or not. Reasonably close to what Paul has with his center line dim. The straight length changes in real time. No to try to figure out how to use the sheet metal flatten tool on this.. You know me..

Edit:.... I have noticed (and it has been pointed out to me) that this is not a valid solution. Inconsistent results. I would, however, like to keep it up and perhaps someone (an equation person) could  come up with a valid solution. Seems like it should work.

Ok,, I fiddled with this and came up with a solution for the equation issue. I made my straightened length from surface bodies (merged but not made into solid). That way the SW-Volume takes only the solid into consideration. This seems to work well and there are no equation issues resulting from taking the volume and dividing by two (then circular reference). Just for the heck of it I did place a 3d sketch (centerline of solid) so I could compare. They don't quite match. Not sure whether to trust the CL or the SW-Volume or neither. I did crank the tolerance in "Mass Properties" to max so I'm assuming the volume is close. Divide that by the area of the end face of the solid should result in the correct dimension. ??.  I have attached another file and have the move faces suppressed. The volume is the same when compared to the .x_t file. Since the Mass Properties precision is cranked way up the file is slow to work with. You may want to turn the precision down. Much faster but not as accurate. File with "Volume" in name.

I added the global variable in the equation only to show what the volume equates to.

Geeze Michael. It looks like we think alike. I used the SW Volume and divided it by two since the SW Volume included both bodies.

Volume comparison is what I’d been using for process planning for complicated 3D Die forming/ deep draw applications. In early 2000 when I started using SWx, it was the primary usage with SWx to find volumes. After introducing multibody capability, it became much easier.

Alin, I can remember at that time I asked for an ER through our VAR Javelin Tech to get parametric Volume value in annotation note. Unfortunately, tech support couldn’t see the value of it and left it as a limitation.

First go

Center Line via sweep up 2 Face Curves

The annotation updates immediately, but the boss extrude needs a CTRL-Q, no matter what I tried it's always 1 step behind

Thought getting it square might help too