2D/3D Gear Design

[Frank(Aflak)]

Originally Posted by Gadget470

I'm looking for a freebie gear maker, most likely in a macro form. I found this but it's only a 15 day trial then you have to pay. [Yes, the server is currently down, I know.]

Anywho, I've searched far and wide for another similar program but have come up with nothing. I understand how to make a standard spur type gear, but there are some that I can't grasp. I'm looking at miter and bevel gears out of the Small Parts Inc catalog and pulling other bits of information out of my Machinery's Handbook to try and make the gears on AutoCAD but it is a real pain.

Anyone know of an easier way to make gears?

I talked with some people about this question and what we decided is this:

Take the pitch diameter, and create a model of the gear (hub, bore, whatnot) but instead of teeth just make a cylinder with a diameter equal to the pitch diameter.

Inventor doesn't care about the difference. It is surely loads easier on your system (especially when you are placing/moving them . . . this can take some time on a middling machine).

So my advice is to just model the gears minus the teeth (using, again, the pitch diameter).