GearHeads Corner

Hi. I just purchased the Gearotic software 4 days ago. I`m new to Solidworks, but I did manage to extrude the 2D pattern coming out of Gearotic spur gear.

I want to go a little bit further and I was told there is other way to work the 3D model from Gearotic to Vexx and then export as a 3D model to work probably in Solidworks.

Can someone share a step by step procedure to do that, for example, for a helical gear.

Regards,

Francis

although I do not use Solidworks and may have mis-understood your question: you may export STL formatted files (a commonly used 3D format) directly from Gearotic (as well as from Vexx). In Gearotic, its an "Output Option" on the tool tab. In Vexx, (F)ile Export.

BMeyer,

Exporting an STL file is easy, but Solidworks can not convert it directly to a solid easily or at least I do not know how to do it.

Hope somebody in this forum can add a comment to see if this is possible.

FFdez

An STL IS a solid, just a different form, what your actually asking for is a conversion from STL to B-Rep.
Cad programs make solids in the form of BReps, they are a tree of operations,
surfaces, curves and meshes that when all considered make a CAD model that is
editable and such. An STL is just a collection of triangles that when closed ( or manifold
as its referred to) make up a solid representation. They dont contain surface information
other than implied surfaces from the end result of the triangulation.

An STL then is the end result of that modeling, but Gearotic doesnt have a creation
architecture, its models are created triangle by triangle algorithmically so no BRep
exists to output.
Some programs can do the conversion however, look for STL->BRep conversion, its
not a perfect process and tolerances are usually set to try to make the BRep truly
represent the STL. In some respects its like making a model from a photo.

Art

I have been successfully importing STL files into Solidworks 2021 and using them in projects. Just make sure you have the solid bodies not graphics selections ticked.
Not able to do feature recognitions but able to dice and slice and add features to them.

Merry Christmas to all.

Dave

and Merry Christmas to you as well. It just turned the 25th here a few minutes back..

Best wishes to all..

Art