Gear Mates 1

[Nella95]

SW 2006, sp 3.0

When using gear mates, in the advanced mates section of mates, is there something more I need to know than: 'Under Mate Selections, select the rotation axes on the two gears for Entities to Mate ' - from the SolidWorks Help - users' guide.


-like, for example - pitch circle, or 'proper' gear ratios?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

As long as you know the ratio of turns per driving & driven gear. The ratio can be calculated using number of teeth or PCD.

When setting up the mates, ensure that you leave only the freedom of rotation of both gears. All other movements should be constrained.


Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091

 

[Nella95]

Thank you CBL - right on the money - I was basically running into problems b/c I was using an internal gear, and wasn't fixing it properly.

 

[yanceman]

Nella,

I create a pitch circle within the gear part and then I mate tangent to another gear with similar sketch circle.
There is a number of good web sites out there that help with gears. I did a Google search on Gear reduction. I have an assembly model of a clock, that has the 3:1, 4:1, and 5:1 gears that allow the minute hand to rotate 1/60th of a rotation per 1 revolution of the second hand. It looks very cool.

Yanceman

 

[Nella95]

OK, Yanceman - now, my original thought was to mate to pitch circles - I'm sorry, but, how do you mate to sketches?

 

[Nella95]

Oh, Yanceman - by the way - that sounds pretty freakin' cool.

 

[yanceman]

Show sketches in the assembly. If the pitch circles are not showing, open the plus (+) next to the part in the feature manager and open the plus at the feature. Right click on the features sketch and select "Show". The Pitch circles in the gears will be tangent to each other.

Yanceman