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Gears

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Message 1 of 8
gdragos
4312 Views, 7 Replies

Gears

Is there any easy/efficient way to create gears/gear geometry in the modeling moe in Inventor 2011, maybe just by inputing the gear specs (pitch radius, root radius, circular pitch, etc.) and then placing the gear/pattern in the model?

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Message 2 of 8
JDMather
in reply to: gdragos

Sure  - use the Gear Design Accelerator.


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Message 3 of 8
gdragos
in reply to: gdragos

Is this feature in the assembly mode only?  I can't seem to locate it in the modeling mode.

Message 4 of 8
JDMather
in reply to: gdragos


@gdragos wrote:

Is this feature in the assembly mode only?  I can't seem to locate it in the modeling mode.


Gears (plural) usually used in assembly format.  Gear Generator is only available in assembly environment.  But once you have created the gear ipt files - you can use them anywhere.
I often see new users confused on how to create a 3-gear set.  Simply create 4 and delete 1.  Done!


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Message 5 of 8
gdragos
in reply to: gdragos

Thanks for clearing that up

Message 6 of 8
jtylerbc
in reply to: gdragos

At my previous company, I often needed a gear model to create a drawing from, without necessarily modeling an assembly.  Usually this was a case of an existing production part being redrawn and revised, rather than a new design.  When a 40 year old product design needs a minor change to one gear machining print that currently only exists as a scanned hand drawing last revised in 1982, you don't remodel the whole piece of equipment.  You do what it takes to redraw that one part, then move on to the next problem. 

 

Typically what I did in these cases (where the single part model was all I really wanted) was to create a temporary assembly, which I would then delete when the part model was complete.  The spur gear generator gives you three options on creating the gear:  Component - which starts a new part, Feature - which adds the teeth to an existing part model, and No Model - which leaves that member of the gear set out of the model.  The third option is what I usually used to create a single model (or the third gear in a set).

 

I can definitely see the usefulness of a part-level gear and spline generator.  For the system we used there before Inventor, we had one (it was a custom macro, not integral to the software), and for redraw situations it was quicker and easier.  If we can only have one method though, I'd rather have it the way Inventor does, even if it's not always the most convenient.  If you just want one model, you can get it, and it's much quicker to put a gear set together Inventor's way than individually modeling the parts and then still needing to build the assembly.

Message 7 of 8
JDMather
in reply to: jtylerbc


.... The third option is what I usually used to create a single model (or the third gear in a set).

 

I can definitely see the usefulness of a part-level gear and spline generator. 

I'll have to try that.


I have my students create an Excel driven iPart gear as it is an excellent example of how to use iParts with plenty of variables and equations.  They can generate whatever gear they need from the iPart once it is all set up.

 

Then I show them that it is already built into Inventor.


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Message 8 of 8
jtylerbc
in reply to: JDMather

It works pretty much the same, it just saves you the trouble of deleting the extra gear.  I used the "make and delete" method a few times as well before I realized the option was there.

 

The iPart is a good idea as well.  Our gears were often organized into "families", which would have similar dimensions other than the gear data itself (usually they were either sets of gears machined from the same blank, or different ratio options for the same unit).  I converted a couple of the DA gears into iParts for gear families.  Worked pretty well, except that the second family I tried it with was so big that I never got to finish making the iPart.

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