How to create gears in 3D?

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How to create gears in 3D? IRONCAD is a professional 3D design tool and there are a few different tools and functions that can be used to create gears. In the video above, we go through how to use a gear generator in Draft. The generator allows you to create a 2D profile of your gear, which in turn is extruded in the Z direction to create a 3Dpart.

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Gears catalogue in IC Mechanical

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In the IC add-on Mechanical and the ICM Mech directory you will find the Gears tool. The gears created via ICM Gears do not use an involute curve but a circular arc/spline as an arc, which means that the gears will "lock together" if you spin them against each other. The gears created here are therefore not manufacturable, they are only schematic.

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Edit existing gears

The Gears tool is also used to edit existing gears created in IC Mechanical. When you drag and drop the tool on an existing gear, the new gear is placed in the correct position.

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Components

The selection of different types of gears can be found by switching between these tabs:

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You can also change the type of gear by selecting the type from the drop-down menu located under the preview below each gear.

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Parameters

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Transmission speed - This text box is available when you drop the flange wheel on an existing one and use it to define the speed.

Module - This combo box contains all values related to the module that are available.

Teeth - This box allows you to select the number of teeth.

Material - Using this combo box, the user can select the code of the material related to the component.

Fixed Mode - Select this checkbox to position a schematic component.

Authored Mode - Select this checkbox to deny access to intellishape.

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BOM Information

The lower part of the dialog contains items that are useful for setting up information related to the component.

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This is divided into two parts: BOM-info and Customized information. For a detailed explanation click here.

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The data structure behind Gears

Each component defined in the UI has behind it some data files containing properties and parameters related to the component itself. These files are located in the default rule folder (C:\Users\Public\Documents\IronPROXT\Norme\Gears). The main files associated with the component group are the following: Main_NAME of Comp.ini and TableNAME.uni.

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Each record contains the following fields:

TableName-> File containing data values that are useful for building the component

Description-> Description of the default rule

MaterialFile-> Default material allowed for this type of component

CodConf-> Configuration of code

As well as other fields specific to each component

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Below is an example of the structure of a Main_Spurs.ini file

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Under each section it is possible to place several entries; each entry refers to a specific rule. The files TableNAME.uni contain the fields for default values related to gear norms; the file structure is self-explanatory.

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Import finished gears via CADENAS

In IRONCAD under Add-Ins tab, you can press CADENAS. This is a library where there are lots of different CAD files from different suppliers.

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Here we can then search for what you need, in this case we just type Gears to search for some kind of gear to show the principle. Once you have found your gear, you then press Open.

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Here you now have the possibility to set your parameters on the gear. When you are done, press Transfer to CAD (IronCAD)

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Then fill in your details, press In acceptance... followed by Ok

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Then the file will be imported to IRONCAD

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Create a pinion drive

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A few weeks ago we received a question to the support team on how to create a 3D pinion drive in IRONCAD. By using Structured Structured Parts in IRONCAD you can create this relatively quickly. As of version 2023, the Structured Part tab will be visible by default. If you want to do this in an earlier version than 2023, you need to manually display the Structured Part tab.

Right-click on a free field on the Ribbon Bar and select Customize Ribbon Bar

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First click on a tab in the right column, then choose after which tab Structured Parts will end up, then press Structured Parts (the option will not appear to be selected) in the left column followed by Add>>

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Then now comes Structured Parts will follow Home. Then close this box by clicking on the checkmark in the right corner.

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Then you will see Structured Parts tab and can now follow the video above.

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Gear Generator

We would also like to promote a good website: www.geargenerator.com. It is a website that offers a tool to create and export 2D drawings of gears. The tool allows users to create gears with different number of teeth, module, angle of break and other parameters. For a small fee, the user can also choose to export the drawing in various formats such as DXF, SVG and STL.

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The site is not related to IRONCAD, but serves as a tool to create gears in 2D. Once you have created your gear in 2D, you can easily extrude it in Z-direction to create a 3D model.

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