Designing spur gears in Fusion 360

[davehorrigan]

Can one design spur gears in Fusion 360? If so how is it done. Dave

[schneik-adsk]

You can design the gears yourself, but I find using this link is easier. There are many types of gears and you can download them as STEP files and upload into your hub to be used in your designs. Remember you can place one design into another using the place command in the assemble pane  on the main toolbar in Fusion 360.

We are considering building some part generators.  In addition to gears what other generators would you find useful?

[nryan]

Any progress on the spur gear generator?  Would defintely be welcome...

[innovatenate]

There are two ideas currently in the IdeaStation for gear generation. You may want to give these ideas Kudos if you like them. This will escalate the priority of the enhancement request to product management and increase the likely hood of the feature being implemented.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Fusion-360-IdeaStation-Request-a/gearing-tool/idi-p/4657023

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Fusion-360-IdeaStation-Request-a/involute-gear-tooth-tool/idi-p/441635...

If you would like to request another feature or command in Fusion 360, please create a New Idea on the Idea Station, link below.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Fusion-360-IdeaStation-Request-a/idb-p/125

I hope this information is helpful.

Thanks,

[sekrit_skworl]

Please tell this newcomer that since 2013, you guys have actually made built a gear generator...

...I will be truly disheartened if you have created a lame procrastination model designed & built around votes, which is fueled by malaise.


Please tell me something good Autodesk. I want to believe that this company is not based on "hype & fluff".

[sekrit_skworl]

Did you ever find any other information for gear/part generation?

[innovatenate]

There is a spur gear generate that utilize the API in the Scripts and Add-Ins. 

I posted some additional screenshots in this other discussion

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/design-and-documentation/planetary-gear/td-p/5783738/highlight/false

I note the ideastation comments  (above links) contain additional information that may be helpful as well.

Thanks,

[JDMather]

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@sekrit_skworl wrote:
...I will be truly disheartened if you have created a lame procrastination model designed & built around votes, which is fueled by malaise...

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Apple Inc. they are not!

[James.Youmatz]

Hi all,

I just wanted to come in and make a more up to date comment on this post - as I am still noticing a lot of views on this thread. 

At this time, as @innovatenate mentioned, there is a Spur Gear Generator that you can utilize in the Sample folder within Scripts and Add-Ins.

To access this Spur Gear Generator:

• Go to the File Menu and select Scripts and Add-Ins
• Click on the Add-Ins Tab
• Scroll Down to Sample Add-Ins and select the Python version (blue and yellow symbol) of SpurGear
• Hit Run

You will notice that dialog will pop up saying that the Spur Gear command has now been added to the Create Panel in the Model Workspace. Since this is an Add-In, this is now a command that can be accessed from that menu. Note: Since this is a sample add-in there is not an option to Run on Startup, so everytime you launch Fusion you will have to run the add-in again to get the command back in the Create menu.

If you prefer not to have it run as an Add-In (where it puts a command in the Create menu) you can instead just run the Spur Gear from the Scripts tab. This will make it only run once. 

Hope this helps everyone!

Thanks,

[Myers.paul]

After creating the Gear using the Spur Gear creator, how do you generate the CAM for it? It looks like you have to select every line on each tooth?

turns out when you scale them down it removed the ability to make a good cut path, if you dont scale them you can select the entire gear face in one click.

[etfrench]

Why would you scale them down?  That is definitely not the way to design spur gears.  To get smaller gears with the same tooth count you should change the DP (Module).

[geogod2066]

I don't believe you can generate gears in Fusion 360 (don't quote me), but I find an easy way to design and create gears is to use the Autodesk Inventor gear tool. The tool will be under the design tab. This tool can help you design spur, bevel, and work gears. It does take a moderate amount of time to learn, but, once learned, it is a huge help.

[Myers.paul]

Under Add-ins change to the add-ins tab, then double click to add the Spur Gear creator to your create menu, though it looks like it does not stay for future sessions. if you don't want it in the dropdown just click the Spur gear in the scripts tab instead of the add-ins.

I created one, it was too big so scaled it down by 50% it was then a good size so I created 2 more at that better size. Then when trying to create the cut path, the scaled one did not work to create the cut path on. Not a big deal as they are super easy to make.

[etfrench]

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@geogod2066 wrote:

I don't believe you can generate gears in Fusion 360 (don't quote me),

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Perhaps reading through the this thread would enlighten you on creating gears in Fusion 360

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@Myers.paul wrote:
I created one, it was too big so scaled it down by 50% it was then a good size so I created 2 more at that better size. Then when trying to create the cut path, the scaled one did not work to create the cut path on. Not a big deal as they are super easy to make.

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If you had changed the Diametral pitch (Imperial gears) or the Module (Metric gears) instead of scaling the gear, the CAM operation would have worked fine.

[geogod2066]

Thank you so much. i was confused when the forum said that the gear tool
was implemented, but i couldnt find it.

[cere.yahoo]

This is kind of a killer non-feature.  I gear generator that you can't export as a DXF for once you resize it.  Uhmmm, that's a problem.  To be more specific, I am using the spur gear add-in and can't see a way to export this sketch to a DXF.

[etfrench]

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@cere.yahoo wrote:

This is kind of a killer non-feature.  I gear generator that you can't export as a DXF for once you resize it.  Uhmmm, that's a problem.  To be more specific, I am using the spur gear add-in and can't see a way to export this sketch to a DXF.

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Why do you think you can't export a sketch of the gear as a dxf?

Here's one created in Fusion 360 and opened in a 2D cad program:

Just select the face of the gear and create a sketch (Assuming you have 'Auto project geometry on active sketch plane' enabled in Preferences).

p.s. Didn't I mention before that you should not be resizing gears in any cad program?  Recreate the gear with the proper module/diametrical pitch in order to create one the required size.

[cere.yahoo]

Hi.  Thanks for your reply.  Acutally, I don't think I did resize them, just modified their size in the gear creator.  I did some modifications to the center holes to fit a nut and bolt but I now can't just select the face and export to dxf as you describe.  Attached is my drawing.

[etfrench]

Sketch4 saves as a .dxf with no problem.  Selecting a face on the other gear works for creating a sketch works as well.  Perhaps you could attach a screencast showing how you're doing this.

[cere.yahoo]

The only consistent way I have found to create a dxf from a sketch is to right click on a sketch from the browser.  I see that I can do that but the dxf that is generated from this method creates not the whole gear but these piecemeal sections of gears defining the curved edges.  I can't seem to find a single sketch that defines the whole gear curve.  Is there a way to generate one from the various pieces?

I am viewing the dxf output from Inkscape.  I would love to know a simpler way to export view and laser cut this all with one piece of software (in addition to just getting it working at all).   I know there are all-on-one (ish) solutions for making gear models but I was hoping to use one piece of software for all CAD models.  

I must say that I rarely see something that should be so simple made so hard.  No blame to anyone, but wow.  I guess we just have an industry that has yet to fully standardize amongst itself to accomodate smooth process flow...

Thanks for your help.