New Aspiring Clockmaker

[DannyBoy2k]

Hey All, just stumbled upon Gearotic the other day and am looking forward to using it more to generate some 3D printed clocks.  I've always been fascinated with horology and have worked on a few clocks, but could only lust after clocks with some of the more exotic escapements.  Brian Law's 3D printed clocks site (https://www.3dprinterclocks.com) was an eye opener for me on the possibility of designing my own clocks with some of these other escapements, the grasshopper and gravity escapements specifically being of great interest to me.

Ken Kuo's SolidWorks models that he puts on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2h07cGBpJs8bF3OkgtJICg) are a wealth of possible escapements to try.  I wish I could take a stab at modeling them like he has, but $4k for a SolidWorks' license is just a bit too much for me.  Gearotic's simulation capabilities seem like the next best thing comparing other options at the moment.

Anyways, much to learn!  Looking forward to it.

~Dan

[ArtF]

Welcome the the group Dan.

  Nice site that one, he does nice escapements..

Yell if and when you need a hand, or if the software confuses.

Art

[Mooselake]

It's been a while since you've added any new escapement types, Art

Kirk

[ArtF]

Kirk:

  , yes it certainly has. Unfortunately Im scared to dig in to Gearotics
code base too deeply. It was written under VS2013 and XP, runs well under Win7, but
I fear to do too much in there anymore. Most of my development is now
in making a background architecture in Vexx that will hopefully allow me to do
things like escapements in there. Im aiming toward a specific goal, but never
really know if Ill get there.  So much is changing in the CAD world its a moving target..

Art

[Mooselake]

So much is changing in the CAD world its a moving target..

Same as it ever was...  I read articles that said the computer business relied on massive annual growth and if the change level went down that a good chunk of the business would self destruct.

I suspect you could rebuild with the latest Visual Studio after you figured out the latest option revisions, but then it probably would only work on the latest Windows 10 destructors version.  At least the current GM works on my latest windoze insider preview laptop, or at least did when I cut the unexpectedly oval gear on the Maslow CNC (it's fault, not GM's) last fall.  Will revisit after the snow mountain melts, many new firmware releases since then.

Kirk

[ArtF]

Kirk:

I find the problem mainly in the libraries used for things like a menubar, the old ones are hard to convert
to new standards, theres lots of weird interactions. I try not to use such things now for future compatability
but gearotics interface is kinda strange in its interplay with dialogs. I may pull its code snips into vexx one day and make easier to use gear generators.. be easier then to add things like escapements..

Art

[John T]

Hi Art,
It sounds like I should give up waiting for a "club footed" escapement.  That's too bad a couple of these have been my most reliable escapements - I guess I have to continue "arm stronging" them.

[ArtF]

John:

Never say never.. Its always possible Ill get there.

Art

[Rick2]

Hey All, just stumbled upon Gearotic the other day and am looking forward to using it more to generate some 3D printed clocks. 

I too stumbled upon Gearotic within the last week. I hope to use Glowforge, Shaper Origin and other older tools to make some tickers. I went through the PDF manual and watched Art's first two YouTube videos on Gearotic Thoughts, and then noodled around with some gears to export. I exported as DXF - finding them was the first trick. I'm an architect by day so opening them wasn't an issue, but they were huge files for a DXF seemingly because in one gear the entity count was 15,780. Every curve is made up of a bunch of tiny segments. I tried printing as a PDF and opening in Illustrator to save as an SVG. The result is the same with thousands of bits that I need to join. Is there a check box for exporting as curves that I'm missing?

Also, there was documentation or something in the video that said the DXF export location could be set in Global settings, but I didn't see that anywhere.  All-in-all very cool program, but the export is a huge problem. Having been a user for all of two hours, I hope I'm missing something simple.

[ArtF]

Hi Rick:

  In the global settings is a setting for the data folder you wish to use. By default its in the Gearotic Motion folder and labeled as GearData. That folder can reside anywhere though,
mine for example is on the desktop, I just created a folder of that name there. Use global settings to point your data folder to there. Your gears will show up in a subfolder by the name of the project name. The global settings are in the small gear icon, top left of the applications menu bar.

  The DXF's from gearotic are large, mainly due to keeping the curves as accurate as
possible, gears have been made from these dxf's up to 4 foot in diameter, so I try
to keep errors down by not producing them as equivalent curves.

  However, you can control them and put them out as curves or at least as simpler
dxf's by running Vexx after you put your gears on the project screen. Run Vexx and
it will have a menu called "Gearotic" in which you can "Get Gears" from Gearotic
as vector data, modify as you wish, then export in Vexx as DXF, or STL. The DXF's from
Vexx are supported by Fusion 360 as well as most DXF programs.

  Vexx has tools to convert line segment vector contours to curves as well, but take
note that creating a bezier form of a gear may not be as accurate as the line segment
form. All depends on requirements in the end. Yell if you run into trouble, we're usually around..

Art