I have been trying to make a torus coil in a few programs. What I want to achieve is what I did in the attached rendered image in SolidWorks which I exported to Alibre and rendered in KeyShot. I was able to do it in TurboCAD with much more difficulty than I would have liked and I didn't quite get the results I wanted with the to ends that point outward. Someone on the Alibre forum suggested that MoI might work using the deform/flow tool. I am not sure how to make the deform tool work. I get the first two commands but not the third. Maybe this is not the way to do this in MoI. In SW there were a couple ways but the most common was to twist a line around a circle and select an final edge to project a sketch from (2nd image). So 2 questions, 1) how to use the flow tool for this and 2) how would you approach this design in MoI?

Hi Don, to use the Transform > Deform > Flow command you need 3 objects - your object that you want to deform, then the base backbone curve (usually a line) and then a target backbone curve.

It looks like you only have 2 curves there, the problem is you're missing the base backbone curve. That would be a line running down the middle of your helix.

Once you have that, then the process is: select curve you want to deform (your helix), then select the first backbone curve (the line down the middle of the helix that you are currently missing) then the target curve (the circle).

- Michael

Fantastic! Thanks Michael. Here is a screen capture before selecting done with stretch checked.

Well, that was super easy in MoI! Thanks for your assistance Michael.

You're welcome Don!

- Michael

Don't know if you are interested but here is the MoI model exported out to Alibre and rendered in KeyShot

It is a beauty!

There is also the ToroidalHelix script.

- Brian