For Gearmaking, I came across these two on the web: gearotic and gearify.
It looks as if Gearotic does round gears and Gearify does "shaped" gears (other than round). Has anyone used these programs or some other gear making program.
I also would be interested to see how to build the gears mysef with a cad program, if it isn't too time consuming.. Currently i have Inkscape and QCad, both are freeware, and also CUT2D which is commercial but has limited cad capability.
Thanks
K
Gear making software recommendations?
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Re: Gear making software recommendations?
We've a section for them on the wiki:
http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/CAM#Gears
(but it's hard to find --- considered putting it under CAD, but some of the programs go directly to cutting files.... added a note on this there.)
Drawing them yourself is pretty straightforward, just have to get the teeth shaped properly so that they mesh. Easiest thing to do is to:
- determine the proper size for a tooth (it will need to be an integral of the diameter of the gear)
- draw a complete tooth, both positive (top) and negative (bottom)
- position a pair of them top (addendum) and bottom (deddendum plus clearance) along the circumference of the circle which will become the gear
- power duplicate the pair, rotating the proper number of degrees to match the desired number of teeth
- select every part which will be an addendum and add it to the circle
- repeat for the remaining parts, but subtract them
I know that would be trivial in Freehand, and I'd be able to manage it in Illustrator --- I'd hope it would be possible in Inkscape or QCad
http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/CAM#Gears
(but it's hard to find --- considered putting it under CAD, but some of the programs go directly to cutting files.... added a note on this there.)
Drawing them yourself is pretty straightforward, just have to get the teeth shaped properly so that they mesh. Easiest thing to do is to:
- determine the proper size for a tooth (it will need to be an integral of the diameter of the gear)
- draw a complete tooth, both positive (top) and negative (bottom)
- position a pair of them top (addendum) and bottom (deddendum plus clearance) along the circumference of the circle which will become the gear
- power duplicate the pair, rotating the proper number of degrees to match the desired number of teeth
- select every part which will be an addendum and add it to the circle
- repeat for the remaining parts, but subtract them
I know that would be trivial in Freehand, and I'd be able to manage it in Illustrator --- I'd hope it would be possible in Inkscape or QCad
Shapeoko 3XL #0006 w/ Carbide Compact Router w/0.125″ and ¼″ Carbide 3D precision collets
Re: Gear making software recommendations?
I've been using http://hessmer.org/gears/InvoluteSpurGearBuilder.html which was recommended in the Guerrilla Guide to CNC Machining and I find it works really well.
There is also a page on there for drawing your own gears - Practical part geometries, which has a really great explanation of the geometry of gears as well as practical information about designing them to work properly.
CamBam also has a gear widget which I have used and works pretty well although I find the ones from Hessmer's program to have nicer geometry
There is also a page on there for drawing your own gears - Practical part geometries, which has a really great explanation of the geometry of gears as well as practical information about designing them to work properly.
CamBam also has a gear widget which I have used and works pretty well although I find the ones from Hessmer's program to have nicer geometry
Re: Gear making software recommendations?
Will, how do you draw the involute shape? Or you just eyeball it?
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Re: Gear making software recommendations?
I usually draw 3 paths in a row, then add nodes, shift them around and subtract one from the other until I have a reasonable shape which snaps together, but looks to have reasonable clearance and then split two of them in half, align them, then union them.
Yeah, I guess I eyeball it.
Yeah, I guess I eyeball it.
Shapeoko 3XL #0006 w/ Carbide Compact Router w/0.125″ and ¼″ Carbide 3D precision collets
Re: Gear making software recommendations?
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