Gears
 

I know you can use 'Ring Wave' to make a ok looking gear, but i don't know how to anamate gears so they 'mesh' correctly. Can anyone help?

I have an AutoLISP routine for AutoCAD that makes 3D gears, if you're interested.

You'd then have to export them, and it wouldn't help any with the animation, but it could be useful anyway. . .

Let me know if you're interested.

If you are using 3ds max 4 look up something called parameter wiring or something like that. It allows you to animate one gear and the 2nd gear will automatically rotate the correct number of revolutions.

well, not sure about the animating the gears, BUT
 

There is a plugin i used once that allows u to create gears (just like a standard primitive, just set the radis, number of teeth, etc. ) and it makes a gear for ya. I'll try and find its name, but you could probobly do a search on 3dlinks.com and find it there or something, just look for gears 3d studio plugin, somin like that. Good luck!

The trick isn't gears, since you can wire rotation together and there are plenty of freeware gear plugins. The trick is the chain that joins them. Using cloned arrays along a spline is just a pain in the butt. If somebody's got a chain plugin, PLEASE put it up. :D

i figured out how to wire them and i uploaded a pic of what it looks like. it if fully anamated. the mats. and lighting need work but the modeling is good. (except for the motor and air cylinder)

ps. all the gears mesh correctly

pps. i never thought about 'chain' because i didn't need to make any for this anamation. however, i think i will play around trying to find an easy way to make them because it seems tricky and a good challenge for me

Creating gears is somewhat difficult depending on your animation.

If you get the OD(Outside Diameter) of the teeth on the gears and then rotate them equally you should figure it all out fairly easy once you start but you just have to figure out a ratio of the OD's ya know 1 degree on one gear to every 17 degrees on another.

I REALLY NEED A GEAR FOR THIS FIRST CAMP THAT I AM A CONSOLER @. CAN YOU PLEASE HOOK ME UP WITH THE PLUGIN OR A READY MADE FILE?


THANKS!