GearHeads Corner

Hi... have just licensed the software and printed out a few elliptical gears using the convert to
STL feature.  Imported that into Solidworks, made a few revisions and all went well.
I have a few questions now that i've been playing with the software.

1)  on the Properties Window, to the very left of the tabs in the upper left hand corner, there's
a few, what looks like, "forward and backward" arrows.  What are they for?

2)  Is there a way to get a measurement from center of shafts.... something more accurate
than using the measuring tape tool?

3)  Is there a way to draw freeform shapes and generate a gear pattern, as is possible on the
Gearify software program?

Thanks.  Like getting familiar with any other software package there's a learning curve.  This software
looks to be very robust and I'm looking forward to getting more familiar with it. 

Thanks!!

Hi:

  Those arrows are unused at present. Just an interface holdover from
the GUI class Im using..

  You can select more than one gear in a project by holding the ctrl key while clicking a second gear in the
project tree. The shaft distance centers will then be shown. You can also , on the DXF tab, put out a "shafting
DXF" which overlays all items in a drawing for more detailed measuring..

  You cannot draw a freeform shape. Yet. An upcoming module will be released soon that allows you to
specify in various ways a shape for a pitch curve based on formulaic input data, manual entry and perhaps a
visual entry. This will be an accurate way of getting a vriable shape that is toothable with proper involute teeth.
      In the end the weirder the shape of a gear, the more important it is to have proper rolling curve
meshable teeth. Its that capablity that the new module will be striving for.

  Have fun, yell when confused. :)

Art