spur and eliptical gears together (but not meshed)

[dmarlen]

I was experimenting with 2 elliptical and 2 spur gears and as you can see from the attachment, the two spur gears are not touching.  They seem to be turning correctly as if they were touching, but they're not.  Would their shaft centers still be correct on an output?

David.

[ArtF]

Hi David:

  No. Something is wrong with that output and Im not sure what. The spurs are not the correct distance apart. Its as if the program
was switch from metric to english and didnt realise it.

  Generally if the gears dont mesh correct on simulation, then they wont work in reality. Anything weird happen during placement?
I cant recreate it, any gears I add seem to mesh. Id delte that and try again. Please let me know if you see any weird happens when you attempt it again.
  Ill be glad when all operations revert to GT, while GM doesnt get many error reports I really notice its limitations when I try
to find an error for people.

Art

[dmarlen]

That's a segway into my next question.  What is the difference between GM and GT?  I have GT and I don't see where one can create spur gears.  And it sounded like the idea of GT was for 3D printers. 

Is GT an advanced version that can do everything GM can do and more?  Maybe I don't have the latest version of GT.  I only see some buttons for 2D and 3D.

[ArtF]

Hi:

  I really should explain that every once in a while anyway as new people join our
  group.
 
    Gearotic Thoughts is the development name of the project to replace GM. Gearotic Motion
    was a project I started for the express purpose of making round and elliptical gears. Its
    popularity was higher than I anticipated. Problems arose as I added too much causing the
    framework of the program to get unwieldy. Almost all software suffers from this, as they
    expand you hit a point where the architecture of the framework just cannot handle the new
    things you wish to do, so GT was started to replace GM entirely.
   
    GT will probably be renamed GearoticMotion2 when its done, and the old GM will go away.
    You get GT automatically when you install these days, but the development install always
    gives you the most current version of it. It has grown alot over the last 8 months and is
    now spitting distance of doing away with GM. Its gears are of higher quality, it offers
    more types of pulleys, sprockets, ellipticals , logarithmics than GM does. GT is missing
    plateing and cage( epicycloidal gearing ), but that's about all that's left before I pull
    GM from distribution.
   
    If your a GM user, its advised to use GT for most things you need. It doesn't yet do plateing
    BUT it does put out shaft reports, dxf's of shaft location as well as much higher resolution
    drawings of all its various outputs. It also does STLs for 3d printing, proper DXF's and its
    GCode is superior to GM. Its also a graphical GCode output.
     
    Basically as each GT module is written the rule is that it must do more, and do it better than GM
    did. Each object in GT is a standalone 3d class with a raft of data in it that allows me in future to
    develop toys far beyond what GM could do. GT will eventually off CAD drawing capability for decorating
    plates and gears. It has many spoke types GM can not do. Its accuracy in toothing ellipticals is higher
    and faster.
   
    GM wont be deleted until GT can do all it can do, but that is getting closer and closer. There
    are now many video's on the use of GT, just search Youtube for Gearotic for a list of them, and we're
    always here to answer questions as , of course, manuals always come last in such development.
   
    Hope this helps, yell if you need to, myself and Bob are always here to help.
   
    Art

[John T]

Hi Art,
What about the "imaginary "  or so called "organic gears"?  Will GT eventually include these?  Or will I have to keep a version of GM to make them.
They may not be practical but they are a show stopper at my Saturday markets.

John

[ArtF]

John:

  Ive never liked imaginary gears as I called them , primarily because they are single speed, they are just
varying pressure angles. My plan is to offer a new one called "Conjugate gearing". Conjugates covers a lot
of weird gear types but follow the speed ratio' s properly much like ellipticals. When I offer conjugates
youll be able to "draw" a master yourself and get its mate based on criteria you cannot do now. The mate you get
will depend on factors such as center distance and ratios.I already developed much of the code for this , and in fact a
motion picture will be released soon with some GM gearing in it created with that technology. If they can use it in
movies...why not offer it to everyone. :) Whatever you can make now in "Imaginary" you will be able to make
in "Conjugate gearing", just  """better and with more options""".

(That's GT's development motto and hangs over my desk. :) )
 

Art

[dmarlen]

I just downloaded the latest versions and in GT I don't see any buttons to create gears.  I can input a project I created in GM and have it simulate rotation, but I can't add to it with any buttons.  Does this mean I don't have the latest version?  Or the buttons just aren't displayed?

[dmarlen]

If it helps I've attached a pic of my screen.

Thanks.

[ArtF]

Hi:

  You have a very very very old version. If you press the help/about ( icon on far right of top bar ), you should see
a version number of 1.17. Your ribbon bar should also be full of panels.. that thing is real old.. Also, GT no longer
imports projects from GM.. GM's data level is now too limiting.. (Though there is a secret key combination to allow
you to "try" to import GM files..)

Download the latest development version, install it and then check the GT icon is correctly pointing to the one you
installed. In fact you may want to remove the old shortcut, just delete it, then reinstall. If your GT is that old, your GM must
be very old as well as they install together..unless your shortcut is pointing to an old folder or something..

Once you get it running ask if you want that secret key combo.. Im not opposed to loading in GM stuff, but just want
to ensure anyone doing it knows its at their risk..it may crash or do weird things with GM's data..

Art

[dmarlen]

I go to the download section and I see I can download GM 4.67.  I know that's not the latest, but I don't see any other place to go.  I tried downloading and installing it anyway.  I don't see GT appearing.  I know I'm missing something easy...

[dmarlen]

It keeps installing version 1.0.0 of GT. 

[BobL]

dmarlen;

The latest development version including both GM and GT is called  "Current Development 4.xx " It can be downloaded from here.  http://www.gearotic.com/downloads.html


Cheers
Bob
:)

[dmarlen]

Okay!  GT looks different now!  Thank you, Bob.

[ArtF]

Im curious..where the heck WERE you downloading from?  :)

Art

[dmarlen]

I was choosing the current release version.  I just thought it was safer.  :)

I didn't realize GT was imbedded in the other download. 

I should be more aggressive. :D

David.