GearHeads Forum

Back to the original hijacking of this thread...
      Art, does GM only use hypo/epi cycloid generating circles equal to half the gear diameter?
      The gears with semicircle looking roots may be hypocycloidal as I think you've hinted. In order to be interchangeable, cycloid gears and racks have to be generated by the same diameter circle. That would mean no easy radial roots. The geometric chuck depends on interchangeability.
      If it is not a feature hiding unbeknownst to me, can you add specified root generating circle diameters for cycloidal gears, after you have finished everything else on the wish list, but before you take a break?

      Are you guys dropping by the Cabin Fever Expo this April? I'll buy you some fair food if you come.

Hi Jason:

>> Art, does GM only use hypo/epi cycloid generatin g circles equal to half the gear diameter?

  Yes, its one of my attempts to keep it easy on users heads. I looked at just about every gear generator program known to man,
from the very expensive to the modestly expensive, and came early to the conclusion that art of what GM "had" to do was keep things
easy on the head. Most programs have dozens of items to decide upon when generating a gear, and most of them had very little
impact on the actual gear, perhpas as little as a few % points in performance. So I made the epi's use only a half-diameter generator
so radial roots woudl be the norm. (Most clock makers of those that use epi's want the old time radial roots for the look).
  Now that we're two years after that decision, I sometimes see things that may indeed  be added without mucking things up too much.
Ill add to my list to see if this can be added, perhaps a % dropdown rather then implicitly specifying the diameter.
  If the generator can handle it without too great a recode time, Ill see if I can add it.

I "may" be at Cabin Fever, I havent as yet set any plans in stone. IF so, Ill buy.

Art