GearHeads Forum

Hmm, thx, Im searching for the error..

Art

2.279 (and the previous version) is cactus on my PC.

When I start, the window strobes between the blue check pattern an black - I thought it was while "tip window" was up, but it seems timed - it does it at other times for about 1sec. 
The message text at the top center is overwriting itself (see attached)
When I try to create a gear using the "Circular Gear Module" the display is black.
I can load an existing project, which again shows a black screen.  I can click on the screen and get the check pattern.  If I use the middle mouse button, I can then view things.
When I simulate it, nothing simulates.  The 3 circle orientation indicator flashes.  If I hold down the middle mouse button the gears simulate properly.

For some reason when I toolpath a non circular gear and run simulation or in Mach4 the tool pauses, raises up and then down in Z as it is makes every  pass...

I down loaded the older version and it "cuts" properly...dropping the Z the proper pass depth as it goes around inside the gear ??

Also missing the text next to: Depth, Final Pass and safe Z ..

Getting ready to cut a few BIG gears out of MDF...

The bearing was still there in red, but I couldn't figure out how to change the shaft.  Deleting the shaft leaves the red bearing item, but it doesn't reappear.

No big deal, if I can't make it come back it's the only thing in the project anyway.  I'll try not to do that again...

Kirk

Kirk:

  If that happens, look to the project tree, if it shows the name in RED , then its still there but the solid fails
for some reason. ( The square shaft may push into the triangualtion badly or something..). Respoking with a
proper value will usually make it appear again..


Art

Accidentally hitting respoke with a bearing on the project screen makes it go away.  I was using a roller bearing, don't know if that makes a difference, and the shaft type was set to square (a leftover from before, the bearing still had a round shaft).  After the errant respoke the square shaft was still there, but no bearing.  Perhaps it's just a reminder to not fiddle with the wrong buttons?  Not to put square pegs in round holes?

Kirk

Nice, very good to know background of the things. I was actually really surprised about the price of the program after seeing the functionality. And I found the program just few days after I got the books about gear cutting and clock making, figure that...

The engravings on my site are all handmade, no CNC there. Cut with pneumatic push graver (not rotating one). Long time ago I made this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-fhCOXiyYc. "Action" starts at about 3 minutes. Should give some idea of the process

I have many ideas about mixing up the CNC made gears, hand engraving them or the mechanisms etc. But as always, too few hours in a day. Will see how it goes.

Viljo:

  Wow.. very nice engravings. Those lighters must have taken awhile.. are they cnc egraved with a cutting tool
or are they done with some sort of burnishing tool?

(Nice work regardless..)

Art

(For background..)

  It happened because originally GM put out code for tangental shaving of involutes, a prety well known technique for
cutting gears on 4th axis, but few programs ( if any) actually cut pulleys or sprockets on 4th axis, so in G2, I allowed pulleys and sprockets to be done, and updated the algorithms so instead of using involute math to determine passes, it uses the actual graphical shape of the tooth.
  The upside to that is you can in thoery do any tooth shape, but you need to pay more attention to how its done, and while involutes will be as good as ever, pulleys , sprockets and such will be hit or miss depending on shape, and a user using the paths available to their best advantage in terms of depth per pass and type of pass.On some youll want tangental, some root wall ( though not many) and on most root clearing which will do most of the work on irregular shapes.. my thought was not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good, better a rough sprocket tooth than none at all.

Art

Thanks, good to know. I come from a sort of regular CNC/CAM background, so having that specialized strategies is bit new and takes time to get used to.