Version 2.279 online

[ArtF]

Hello Everyone..


    Version 2.279 is online. The formulaic gears are not yet ready, but it was time for a general cleanup.
Many bugs were submitted lately, the upcoming module is being hard on my head, so when that happens
I look back and fix up bad stuff whilst I think about how to do a new thing..
  As a result, this version has many new icons, several GUI swaps to clean things up, and a re-release
of rythmic geneva's. A very short video is here..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwrwvdW ... e=youtu.be

  Youll find several things changed, let me know if they interfere with or cause GUI troubles on your systems,
I just never know as I use very large and multiple monitors.. so what may look good to me.. well, may simply
suck on yours. . The sim has been updated a bit to reflect some errors I found in Mach4's Sim plugin. So it
may work for you if it didnt before. Same with video and snapshot output.
    Non-circular toothing has been sped up a bit, but it hasnt been antialiased, Ill try to do that when I get to toothing
the new gear type, which will use the noncirc's general toothing algorithm.
 
    Thanks for all the recent feedback, and welcome to all new users from the past month or two.

Good luck,
have fun
Art

[Viljo]

The place to download is http://www.gearotic.com/linkcnt/click.php?id=4, right? For some reason I still get .275 from there.

[ArtF]

Sorry about that, the link was defective, fixed and proper version is now online.

Art

[Viljo]

Supercool, now the SetPixelFormat error is gone for 3-axis sim and I think the UI looks better as well. Nice work indeed.

This is now a very minor thing, but the CNC sim looks weird. Very blocky, see the attached photo. Again the OpenGL goodness with AMD cards probably?

[ArtF]

Hi:

  Hmm, seems the pixelformat is now OK.. but another problem exists..

Ill come up with a diagnotic routine to help us track it down...

Thx
Art

[Viljo]

Aa-and I ran into another possible issue. Pulleys and root wall cleaning op seems to be bit funky, it cuts deeply into the wheel.

Sorry about all that

[ArtF]

Hi:

  This isnt really a bug...

  Root wall clearing should not be done except on epicycloidals and involutes. They are the only two profiles which have
actual roots. Pulleys and sprockets and the like are arc profiles, so root wall clearing can erase parts of their teeth. Tangental and rooting itself are about all you can can do with most pulleys and sprockets, Wall clearing should be used only when a user feels from the simulation that it would help in removal of material he wants removed.

Thx
Art

[Viljo]

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.

[ArtF]

(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

[ArtF]

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