Gear Software

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Is there a piece of software that lets you create gears of various sizes and pitch then output a vector drawing?

[Doug Griffith]

I know of a few but neither are anywhere near cheap, Vectorworks and Geartrax for SolidWorks. You can draw your own but it isn't for the light hearted. You can find formulas online. If you need a specific spur gear, let me know. I should be able to help you out.

Cheers,
Doug

[David Fairfield]

You can use the star tool in Adobe Illustrator to draw gears very precisely and easily. Use the round corners filter to smooth the points.

Dave

[Scott Challoner]

Allycad is free and can make gears. Someone on the Creek posted this a while back. Hope it helps.

[Tony Joyce]

Try here -
http://www.forestmoon.com/software/GearDXF/

Tony Joyce

[Doug Griffith]

You can use the star tool in Adobe Illustrator to draw gears very precisely and easily. Use the round corners filter to smooth the points.

Dave

I think what you're talking about would create decorative gears... not spur gears with pitch or pressure angles.

Allycad makes gears... cool.

[Doug Griffith]

Try here -
http://www.forestmoon.com/software/GearDXF/

Tony Joyce

That's cool too!

[Dave Johnson29]

Is there a piece of software that lets you create gears of various sizes and pitch then output a vector drawing?

Do you want real gears or just images that look like gears?

A BIG difference.

[Tony Joyce]

This is an online gear generator -with HPGL output
http://woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/template.html

Tony Joyce

[Tony Joyce]

Or if you want to get real fancy and generate G-code & don't mind paying!
http://www.realhamradio.com/gearhome.htm

Tony Joyce

[Doug Griffith]

This is an online gear generator -with HPGL output
http://woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/template.html

Tony Joyce

This is a great tool. Thanks. I clicked a few links on the page and found something that tickles my gray matter. Now I know what I'm going to do in my golden years... make Marble Machines.

http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/marbles/index.html

[Tony Joyce]

Or you could just cut them on a table saw using this guys method.
http://steveg769.bizland.com/id5.html

also be sure and check this page out.
http://steveg769.bizland.com/id13.html


Tony Joyce

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

I would be willing to pay for the Gear-Wheel Designer if I could design the cutout to attach to various servo shafts.

[David Fairfield]

I think what you're talking about would create decorative gears... not spur gears with pitch or pressure angles.

Allycad makes gears... cool.

You're right, Doug. But you can change the contours on one tooth, and use cut/ paste/ rotate / copy / expand. You can draw the gear you want in Adobe, if you already have the specs.

Whatever program you use, don't forget to compensate for kerf.

Dave

[Doug Griffith]

Once you have the teeth and centerpoint in vector format, you can draw up any attachment you need in something like CorelDraw.

Speaking of gears, attached are a few pics of a project I'm doing. What you see are CNC toolpaths for tooling to vacuum form a gear. The gear is 14" across and is part of a much larger planetary gear system. I just machined it out of wood which took about 8 hours. Now its off to the foundry to be cast out of aluminum.

Cheers,
Doug