Due to my current circumstances I got to get away from inventor (too expensive) and so I am giving F360 I try.
So first the good news. It seems to have ample features for my designing.
So I was able to design gears that perfectly meshed including properly having the predicted dimensions in pitch diameter and are involute and Center Distance etc. (Currently printing a test rig for gears and to help me properly create a motor controller. So in many cases as I am used to stick a gear on top of another and make it printable without supports etc so something of this Nature
Each tooth with a proper filet on the root and the crown and a camfer on the side of the tooth and of course holes for bearings that are press fit and with a little hole on the side to allow to stick something in there to pry them out. etc.
Now my big gripe. Have tried the gear generator that comes with it and then the one thats called helical gear+ And also made designs that are not gears (nothing too major maybe 30-50 sketches with associated extrusion, sweeps, revoles, lofts etc) and tried 2 computers. Now…
Yesterday computer A - 18 crashes in 10 hours. Today Computer B 19 in about 9 Hours. And as crash I don’t count error messages but one second there is F360 and the next moment - there is the desktop. Granted you get some about 5 min old version back in recovery but the 15-30 min later - next crash. Now those 2 computers ran Inventor fine. One an I5 one an I7 with 16gb of ram ssd hd good enough video cards and win10. So for now not that happy with F360. But such is life I guess. Hope they improve that aspect of it.
Oh most crashes seem to happen on circular and rectangular patterns and mirrors.
Fusion is weird. Sometimes it ran really well and other times…not so much, at least in my experience. I had to use it nearly everyday for an engineering class in high school. I tried turning the graphics settings all the way down, even going as far as making the model a wire frame while panning around. But it often crashed while loading polygons or extruding/cutting away patterns.
One of the crashes was 110% my fault as I set a notebook on my keyboard and accidentally entered some extra zeros in a dimension. F360 doesn’t handle one million inch extrusions too well.
I believe there’s a minor issue of he’s no longer with a team.
With that aside…Can I suggest Onshape’s free version? I was never really happy with F360 myself; if I’m not mistaken it’s happiest as a CAM program.
I used inventor when I was a student, and now as a mentor, both of the teams I have worked for use onshape. I found the transition for basic designs to be very straightforward, and the extension/app library to be very extensive.
Yeah but dont seem to find a free version. There is a trial but trials expire. I am retired on fixed income. Like to cad and help some teams on occasions in the process so I need an ongoing cad solution that does not require me to skip my meds. So unless I find another cad solution that is acceptable and does not break my bank looks like I am stuck with F360
Where you’ve been a mentor and post your designs here frequently, don’t hesitate to sign up for a free EDU Onshape account - it makes your designs private (if that’s something you’re concerned about). You can enter the website for the last team you mentored/their school and list yourself as a mentor. The sign up link is: https://www.onshape.com/edu#form-container
I already signed up as a hobbyist. And all designs I do are meant to be public. Heck at times I even took/take requests. I am teamlesss after being a mentor for12 years as there were too many differences between the new leadership and my philosophy on how to run a team. But that I might air privately as to the details and not publicly so I had a meeting with the admin and it was found that the differences are irreconcilable and I “retired” and even got a plaque for 12 years of service.
I still strongly believe in FRC. I might volunteer at some events if I can. Main problem for that is I might have to show up late as I can’t drive in the dark no more. I am retired for health reasons. I got some 3d printers and I have printed some stuff on commission you could say for teams from Brooklyn to PA and in between so NYC, NJ, PA, CT area. And provided and willing to provide remote help where needed. I still can design stuff. I am particularly partial to the underfunded (poor) teams who are struggling making a robot out of very little. That is why I got into 3dp in the first place cause we used to be and probably still are and underfunded team making a robot with hand tools out of scrap. I am also a strong believer in CAD that means CAD first then build
So for this off season I have decided to investigate and tackle certain things.
The first main project is a tensile strength tester. That in the process will test the strength of 3DP printed samples and at the heart has a wormgear setup. 3DP of course. Right now the prototype parts are printed and in the process of being assembled.
The next step needs a motor controller and cpu. So I am in the process of desigining one that will control 2 CIM motors for about <$10 in parts. Right now I am working on the current control part as the motor controller will handle (hopefully) per motor 2 limit switches, 1 quadrature or standard encoder, current control and some closed loop functionality. You could say inspired by a talon SRX using I2C instead of CAN. and then being controlled by an arduino with a touch-lcd. I know not FRC legal but should be great for off season stuff and as a teaching tool.
something like this 1 CIM will be the load with the 2 wires either shorted or having a resistor (.1 to 1 ohm) placed between them. The gear train between the driving and ballast motor will be adjustable in ratio anywhere from 1:1 to 1:25 or 25:1 however you mount the gears there are a total of 4 stages. So the point is to have a constant load determined by the ratio and the output motor with or without resistor. In step 1 data will be gathered with my ammeter with the motor connected to a battery directly and then later compared to what the circuitry reads back. At this point all gears are 1.5 mm modulus but the rig can be used in the future to test smaller moduli and different materials. So one can make statements material X with/without lubrication will survive xxx rpm under yyy load for at least a season at modulus zzz. etc
Also working on a compound frame based on 3dp. Where the 3dp parts get wrapped in fiberglass.
Well all will be public. Things will go at the speed of that my circumstances allow both health and $$$ wise. Everything will be made public. As of now my policy was/is I kept the things in progress private (unless there was colaboration) and then made them public on grabcad once I was sure it did what it was supposed to do
