Gear Machining Software

[cjjonesarmory]

I'm looking for gear machining software. BobCad V21 (not sure about v23) has a gear machining utility, but it only seems to work for spur gears.

Specifically what I need is something that will generate toolpaths, or at least a 3D model, of different kinds of gears. Free would be great, but I would probably still pay for a program too.

Some examples of gears I need to make are spur gears (which I can already do with BobCad v21), but also helical gears, timing belt pulleys (ok so it's not really a gear), and bevel gears. Sure I could buy these things pre-made, but it would be more cost effective to make them myself. That's the whole purpose of being a machinist right?

Ideally, what I want to be able to do is plug in a few parameters and have it spit out GCode. I don't care if it's a stand alone program, or part of some other software, just need some clues where to start looking. An internet search turned up very little.

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

What type of machine do you want to use to produce gears?

Milling machines can produce gears and sprockets. Helicals are a little tricky. Lathes with live tooling can also produce gears.

Real production type gear software is a major deal. The people who took years to develop it expect to be paid for it. Ex. crowned helical gears on a CNC hobber are generally six axis machines.

Go for it, gears are a fun challenge.

Dick Z

[dave22]

These may help, have fun.

http://www.hobbing.com/cadlib/index.html

•MITCalc - Bevel Gear Calculation - http://www.mitcalc.com/download/MITCalcBGear01.exe

•MITCalc - Spur Gear Calculation - http://www.mitcalc.com/download/MITCalcSGear01.exe

•MITCalc - Internal Spur Gear Calculation - http://www.mitcalc.com/download/MITCalcSGearI01.exe

•MITCalc3D for Autodesk Inventor - http://www.mitcalc.com/download/MITCalcINV.exe

•MITCalc - http://www.mitcalc.com/download/en/MITCalc001.exe

•MITCalc - Force shaft connection - http://www.mitcalc.com/download/MITCalcShaftconF01.exe

•MITCalc - Bolted connection - http://www.mitcalc.com/download/MITCalcBoltCon01.exe

•MITCalc - Shaft connection - http://www.mitcalc.com/download/MITCalcShaftcon01.exe

•MITCalc - Shafts Calculation - http://www.mitcalc.com/download/MITCalcShafts01.exe

•MITCalc - Torsion Springs - http://www.mitcalc.com/download/MITCalcSprTors01.exe

•MITCalc - Springs - 15 types - http://www.mitcalc.com/download/MITCalcSprings01.exe

•MITCalc - Tolerances - http://www.mitcalc.com/download/MITCalcTolerances01.exe

www.gearcad.com

http://www.donkersdesigns.com/gear%20calculation.html

http://www.kisssoft.ch/english/home/index.php

http://www.webgearservices.com/

Just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. try "gear design software" and "mechanical design software" as search terms in Google etc..


Have a good one, and let the chips fall where they may.