Making springs

[thebigroyboyski]

I've finally got round to following some tutorials for 3dcrafter and I'm building my first wagon using the "how to build a locomotive" tutorial.
My question is what's the best way to model a spring?
I thought about just texturing a cylinder but wondered is it worth making a full 3d spring or would it just have to many faces?
Cheers
Roy

[mrennie]

I've finally got round to following some tutorials for 3dcrafter and I'm building my first wagon using the "how to build a locomotive" tutorial.
My question is what's the best way to model a spring?
I thought about just texturing a cylinder but wondered is it worth making a full 3d spring or would it just have to many faces?
Cheers
Roy

For what it's worth, the coil springs in the Consolidation (they're under the cab, near the rear drivers - you have to go up close to see them) are fully 3D. They're very difficult to get right. One trick is to make sure you delete all the faces on the inside, the ones that can't be seen from outside, and also make sure that you join any points that are very close together into a single point (3DC's "optimize geometry" button is a good way to do it).

Texturing a cylinder is the easy way out, but I hate that. It looks fine from a distance, but when you go up close, as I like to do, it's just plain ugly.

[Acorncomputer]

You could perhaps create a cylinder and add a number of 'edges' that form a spiral around the cylinder and then use the Pipe Builder tool to create a 'pipe' around the cylinder based on those selected spiral edges. When created, delete the base cylinder to just leave the coiled pipe.

I have not actually done this and I think some experimentation in edge angles and pipe sizes would be required but I feel sure that this should work. Use more faces and edges for greater detail but some clever texturing may disguise where the faces of the 'pipe' meet if a low poly model is desired.

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[thebigroyboyski]

Sorry for the slow reply, I've been busy reading papas and your tutorial mrennie and just having a play with the different functions.
I think for my first model I'll not try to out do my skill level and just get a good representation of what I'm trying to model into the game. Then for my next one I'll take what I've learned and make something a lot better that I'll be happy to share.
I'll get back working on my model tonight and see how my springs turn out. If they don't turn out well then the wagon I'm starting with came in another version with leaf springs which are hidden anyway
Thanks for the replies and please excuse any future daft questions I may have.
Cheers
Roy