GearHeads Corner

Hi All:

  Gearotic2.0 R2.002 is now online. GearoticMotion.exe is no longer in the install, only a new
executable named Gearotic.exe is installed. The icon on the desktop will now show a gear with
2.0 on it. Gearotic Thoughts are now simply the series of video's on using Gearotic 2.0

  In this release you can now add collars to most gear types including bevels. Helicals are the only
type which can not yet take collars. The collars are integral to the stl, they are not an overlay as I
originally intended, that causes some display issues so instead the stl's are still closed manifolds
with proper orientations.

  Grasshoppers are also released in this version, take note they have a slight positional glitch error
still being debugged, but design wise they work fine.

I believe it was Feb. 28/2013 when work began on Gearotic Thoughts, this was because GM had
become so complex internally I couldnt add anything without breaking somethign else. Every object
was its own type of class so it took a great deal of work to design anything.

In Gearotic 2.0, all object are a single class. ( a C3dObject), the class incorporates abilities for
almost any object Id care to make and so is much much less complex to add. Its still difficult
of course as any object is complex, but the framework of G2 is very tight and much easier to debug and
work with. I said at the time I anticipated it would take a year, it took a year and a quarter.
 
I thank you all for your patience while this switchover took place, I think youll agree its a much better
program with more powerfull features and more accurate output.

  Youll notice we lost the old elliptical tabs from GM, as the new noncircular duplicated them and is
so fast there was no excuse to have the old  ellipticals with their less than desirable tooth profiles.
We lost as well the 4-bar linkages, they will return at some point with better control and capabilities.

  So we're finally there, I got to delete Gearotic Motion from the install. I will soon post it online
as an archive so that if a user needs it for any reason you can still get it.  There are hidden features
in Gearotic 2.0 which I will turn on as I complete them..( if I complete them) as I go. The program is set
up so incomplete features do not show up in your menu's only mine. As I stated earlier this month in future
I will include anything I write for nearly any purpose in G2 as my platform for personal experimentation,
so you may see things a bit eclectic at times. or things having nothing to do with gears, but typically
having something to do with CNC in general, ie: CAD, CAM, Lasers or 3d printing, all areas I tend to
play in.

    Its always nice to reach a milestone and Im happy I got there, thanks again to all of you for joining
us for the ride, giving us suggestions and bug reports to help the program along. Overall Im pretty happy
with the result so far, ( much happier than I was with GM anyway. :) )

Thanks,
Art

PS: Video work underway to explain collaring and grasshoppers.. expect bugs, this is still early on
for those modules.

Hi Art,
Congratulations - I really admire you for doing this - GT is truly a gift to those of us who just make "stuff".

The new GT doesn't have the "organic" or "imaginary" type gears.  I realize I may be the only person in the world that makes these but people at my country fairs always get a smile from them.  Do I need to keep an old version of GM if I want to make them or will they eventually appear?

John

John:

  Eventually, they will reappear. But with you drawing one gear and its mating appearing
by command. From this point on G2 will grow module by module as I get to it, and Ill
periodically update modules that exist. Before I add anything more I will probably refine
the Gcode screens a bit to make them more friendly. Id expect something similar to organics
this year sometime..

Art

WooHooo!

Now we get helical bevels and hypocycloids.  ::)

Seriously though, thanks Art.  I'm loving the new and improved software.  Very cool!

Randy

:) - Yes, you may see such things one day.

Youll all forgive me of course if I take some time to enjoy the summer.. I expect slow action till
the fall now, bug fixes of course, but little of substance till the next busy season. ( Sept to May. )

:)
ARt

Art,
Many thanks, awesome work and as someone who has the do a fair bit of gear work you have made my life easier and far more productive.
Proud to have been on the journey.

John:

    Without your input over the past many years, my hair would have been much more grey and much more sparse. Youve been an inspiration to us here as well as to most cnc groups on the web, from Mach3 to forums on hobbing.  I often tell people who ask me a question that stumps me that Ill "check with that damn Stevenson". A special thanks for your input .. your the only one that before Ill argue a point with , Ill investigate an issue a great deal, and even then you have this annoying habit of being right. Keep it up, we all benefit. You know, I just checked..youve been giving me advice or a hard time in equal measure since at least early 2005, when I started collecting my email. That means youve been correcting me for pretty much a decade.  No wonder you've become "that damn Stevenson.".

:-)

  Art

Enjoy your summer Art, you've earned it!

Thinking back to the fledgling beginnings of GM and now, who would have ever guessed..........

Thanks Ken:


  Everyone: Here is a video on adding Collars, nice short and to the point. :)

Art

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIUofNY3gkM

Where's the video link?
Dan Mauch

lol..sorry Dan.. look again, Ive added it.

Art

Art,

I also enjoyed the journey. I have to admit that after getting use to GM I was upset that you would "Change" my beloved GM.
At my age. I don't take change as well as I used too. (the old saying "people hate change")

WOW!! was I ever Wrong.

I can't believe the quality and quantity of the projects that I can create and design with GT.

I'm so glad that I came across your web site when I did.
I can't say enough good things about your software so I'll stop here and let you enjoy the summer.

Thank you for all your efforts

Jerry

I created a 10 tooth GT2-5 pulley with a 5mm shaft, added it to an empty project, then tried to add a 60% collar.  This was too small, and ended up with visible triangles.  After that I was unable to create an untriangulated pulley.  Even exiting and restarting the program, and starting over with an 80% collar, wouldn't create one without triangles.  I'm not sure if it was broken to start with, or I broke something that won't go away with a program restart.

An option to specify collar size in units (mm or dead king body parts) rather than percentages would be pretty handy.

Also, have you considered being able to add flanges.  Not sure if they make sense for spur gears (google didn't find anything on flanged spur gears), other than artistic reasons, but they'd be nice for timing pulleys.  And since I'm on pulleys, what about V-belt pulleys?

Kirk

Hi Kirk:

  I made a change to the OpenGL which appears to have made things look blocky, I dont think its a triangulation error, Im working on a fix..

Ill give thought to flanges and VPulleys..

  I try to stay away from actual diamters and such where I can, it causes too much grief when people enter numbers good for one thing, then are way to large or small for other things..%'s tend to work betteer in the end once you get used to them..

Art

Hi Kirk:

Found the issue , will issue a fix sometime tomorrow..if its the issue I think, the triangulation was actually fine on the pulley without a collar, it was a display issue that makes it look funny. The display WITH the collar is another matter. Some pulleys, the G2 series in particular seem to have a crossed line somewhere so they wont accept collars, some will , some wont. I have that one added to my "fix" list .

Art