New Release 2.10

[ArtF]

Hi All:

Version 2.10 is online, its only changes are a Help/Video system to show videos matching the various
topics available. Also a photo processor to manipulate the grey scales of bitmaps for engraving.
Version 2.01 is now the release version, this version is a start position for this seasons builds.

Thx
Art

[cncorbust]

Hi Art, wish you would pass on how you manage to get so much done!  Any way down to my question, I just downloaded the newest version of Gearotic  ver2.10000. The main screen comes up OK but there is no "balloon" icon in the top left corner as shown in the tutorials. I've manage to get my install to do much of what you show in the newest tutorials but my system has frozen a couple of times (Don't know what I had been doing when I noticed the freeze). Also I had difficulty setting the bevel on bevel gears until I noticed that that setting appears to be shown on the screen as being tied to helical gears ? seems to work. Yeah I know the heading is there as Helical/Bevel angles but is remote from the vertical selection list.

Mike

[ArtF]

Hi Mike:

>>The main screen comes up OK but there is no "balloon" icon in the top left

  There's a button on the top left to add commands to the toolbar, I think perhaps your meaning the Options icon.. the small gear? I have mine
with several icons many may not have selected as default. Let me know if Im misunderstanding that question.

  I will see about relabeling the bevel angle, it should really show as helical/bevel to show its used in both.

As to how I get so much done... if I figure out the secret..Ill let you know. :-)  (Thanks for the kind words though)..
 
On that note I'm well along the new CNC module and hope to release the preliminary version within a few weeks. Its a large module with lots of new code so its taking
me quite awhile, but I think most will like the new format much more than the old. It also paves the way for a CAD module to make things much more interesting.
The new module will allow multiple items to be machined as one job, rotated and placed as you wish, nesting more than one copy of an item, automatic toolpaths as well as selecting inside, outside or center-line profiles as well as pocketing and engraving and will include a post processor just in case your using a non-mach3 system.
( Engraving will be used in future for Bevel gears to be done in 2.5D cnc as well as lithophane type engraving. Engraving wont be included in the initial release, its planned for after the 4th axis rewrite is done. )

  The above is the plan, we'll see how well it turns out in practice, Im usually the last to know.

Soon
Art

[Mooselake]

Any chance the new CNC module will contain tabs?

Kirk

[ArtF]

Kirk:

  Good Idea, that was on my list and I haven't dealt with it., Luckily, this is the right time to mention that so Ill
add that to the mix. Might mean a bit more debugging due to complexity, but I think its something worth doing.
I'm thinking of having the tabs only operative on a final pass depth..
  As its working now, you specify a final depth..that forces the system to ensure the last pass is a set depth,
my though is tabs would be easier to breakout if only done on the final pass if one is specified.. any thoughts?

  So to be clear the profile would be cut to depth-lastpass depth, with no tabs, then the last pass would cut with tabs
every "user specified" distance along that pass lifting to the height of the previous pass for the tab width then plunging back
down to final depth , leaving easily cut tabs. A user could then know that the final pass depth is the thickness of the tabs
called for...
  I dont normally use tabs, does that sound OK, or do you think you'd prefer full depth tabs.. Im just trying to keep
complexity to a minimum..the more settings you have the more complex users tend to find things..

Art

[John T]

Hi Art,
I use tabs in Aspire and having them on the last pass is perfect.  Since I use small bits - 1/16" is my favourite - I have broken more that one bit when a gear shifts slightly on the last pass and "jams".  I can't wait that that one!!

PS Don't give up on imaginary gears sometime when you're bored.

John

 

[ArtF]

Hi John:

  Last pass it is. ( I hate thick tabs..)..Already started adding the code.

As to imaginary gears..My plans for G2 have firmed up. Imaginary gears will be replaced by users specified gears, a new module to be added in
conjunction with the CAD module. Once I add power for users to draw gears and other movable mechanisms, youll be able to make very strange gears.
Like the code I used to help the BoxTrolls guys to make their weird clock gears, Ill be adding a module that allows you to define odd shapes and create their
centrode matches. Theres a long  way to go till we get to that spot.. but thats the plan. Its the only way thats makes sense to me to allow for such things
without making things so complex people give up in despair. So you WILL see such things, and probably weirder than the old imaginaries. but it will be awhile till
I get there. Just a drawback of being a one man shop.. :)

Art

[cncorbust]

Hi Art, The missing "ballon" icon is what you call "menu selector". The first icon in the line on my screen is the "new" selector. Customization of the "quick menu" doesn't appear to give an option to install the menu selector icon.

Not sure what you are using to generate the YouTube videos (qudos to your narrating skills) but the lettering in the selector boxes is very fuzzy which makes it hard to follow some of the selections you make during the videos. My screen res is 19xxx by 12xxx.

Mike

[ArtF]

Hi Mike:

  Ouch, kinda nasty if the menu selector disappeared. You could try resetting all G2's menus.. to do that  start Gearotic, open your task manager ( Cntrl-alt-delete ) and select task manager.

  Select gearotic and stop the process. When you restart Gearotic it will tell you it noticed an unexpected shutdown and ask if youd like to reset all data, tell it yes and you
should start fresh with nothing setup. The menu selector should be a small dropdown arrow that opens up a menu configuration to allow you to customise things to your liking.

Art

[Mooselake]

Last pass sounds fine for me, too.  I don't know if it's worth specifying a less than full depth for them - my thought is varying the depth per pass slightly so the last pass is whatever tab thickness works out.

Do you need to think about a tab count and width, or can they be a constant number and angle (or minimum width)?  A bit of googling suggests some potential options, minimum tab count, distance between tabs (affected by minimum), and tab width.  For example, say one tab every 20mm, 3 minimum, 3mm wide.  If you have, say, a 61mm perimeter (based on radius, not travel around the teeth ) then you get 4 (always round up?).  If it's 40 you get 3, if the perimeter is less than 12mm then it's just solid and you need to dig out the xacto knife.

Kirk

[ArtF]

Kirk:

  For first go around, Im setting it so you specify the number of tabs per profile and their width.

If a profile is too small, no tabs will be made.. or it may be solid.. ( I havent decided..), but generally if you sepeciy 4 tabs of 2mm width, youll generally get one at each 90 degree point... etc

We'll go form there.. I hope to have them dont within a coupel days, then I need to add a post processor and Ill be able to release the first version of the CNC module I think... couple weeks perhaps..

Art

[ArtF]

Kirk:

  Here's a teaser of how the tabs look. :)

Art

[Jerrywi]

Fantastic Art.

[John T]

This looks great - I've had some close encounters between fingers and cutter on really small gears.  No more such adrenaline  rushes!

John

[Mooselake]

Looks good!  Thanks!  It looks like you've put them in the spoke cutouts too.

I'd vote for solid rather than none on small parts.  It might be more trouble to trim them off, but the little guys are more easily damaged if they move around.

John - being a bit accident prone, and since it's more fun to watch somebody else being sutured (they sometimes let medics watch here if you're quiet and say how much you appreciate it later) I use old toothbrush handles to hold parts for the last few seconds of cutting.

Kirk