By Shaun Griffiths
Sometimes, in your design, you might need some spiral based geometry such as in a drill bit, a spiral staircase or even a chute.
One way you can achieve this is by creating a solid coil.
Choose a sketch plane and define the diameter of your coil.
Next, define the parameters of your coil.
Then you can create a new sketch and project the geometry of the spiral.
Now you can turn off the visibility of the original solid and delete any unnecessary geometry. Leaving you with a spiral you can use to sweep a new shape.
Here, I have copied and pasted the coil onto a new sketch and moved it up by 400mm to act as a guide rail for a sweep. Then, I drew a third sketch for the profile. When creating your own, make sure you fully constrain the geometry.
Now, when performing a sweep, I am left with a new solid in my chute design.