What software are poeple using to get form gearotic to print

[Gavin]

Hello,
I'm wanting to create gears in gearotic, modify hubs and shafts in some cad program, then export to stl to be slic3d up.
What I thought would be trivial is turning out to be very difficult . 

Can someone let me know how they do it.

Thanks.
Gavin.

[ArtF]

Gavin:

   The creation of the dxf's is easy. I too use CAD to modify my dxf's for the use I need of my gears. However, getting an STL from any cad program is
difficult, the DXF is basically a 2d of the gear ( though you can also put out the stl of the original gear but modifying them takes a solids package type
of cad and isnt easy to do), and youd have to extrude the gear back into a solid in order to get stl's with modified hubs and such. Shafts arent really
dealt with in GM at all, the shafts are simply holders so one can visualise how the gears fit and at what centers.
  I am working on ways to get better quality stl's out of the program directly, but the complexit y of that limits what I can do, each person wants something
different from hubs and spoke offsets in terms of a final 3d stl. The STL output from GM is curently pretty limited and can really only output what you see
on the project screen. All the 3d prints Ive seen so far are usually sjust the otput gears themselve s. Your limited to about 100 teeth or so on a gear in stl
in order to preserve the resolutio n without having too high a triangel count.

 Just ask if theres anything I can elaborate on, or if your having trouble with getting the dxf data you need, but the answer to your question about how its done
is actually a very complex one and depends on the solids package your using in attemptin g to modify the gears.

Thanks
Art

[danmauch]

 I been using Bobcad 24 to take 2d dxf files, modify them and then add  hubs etc to them and then export them as stl files to slic3r.
 But I'm sure there are other cheaper programs .
Dan Mauch

 

Hello,
I'm wanting to create gears in gearotic, modify hubs and shafts in some cad program, then export to stl to be slic3d up.
What I thought would be trivial is turning out to be very difficult . 

Can someone let me know how they do it.

Thanks.
Gavin.

[Gavin]

Thankyou both,
The issue I have is that I'm after bevel gears. It seems the stl and 3d dxf are not watertigh t mesh's so I can't easily modify them as solids without allot of work. Spur gears are fine.
I feel unless you develop a full featured solid cad editor for gearotic you would never satisfy everyone. For me my only interest is generatin g the bits of gears I can't understan d the maths for, create the rest in autocad or freecad, then print it out.
I'm hoping someone has done the hard work already.

For me Gearotic dxf/stl -> Autocad 2013 (can't convert to solid)
Gearotic dxf/stl -> Freecad (can't perform Boolean operation s)

I'm sure I'll have another crack at it today.
Thanks
Gavin

[Richard Cullin]

i have reasonabl e sucess with google sketchup 7 and 8 for 3d bevel/helical gears, i find that using the rubber eraser tool to remove the top and bottom of each gear allows you to create your own hubs easily enough,
the smoothing function also reduces the number or triangles if things get too slow , used judiciuou sly of course,
slicr3 has no trouble producing a 3d print,from the stl's so produced
netfabb studio can fix some other issues,use the simple repair option
for spur gears i just import the 2d dfx into sketchup.
another tip with sketchup is to import a mm scaled object (dfx,stl) as inch then scale it back to mm when you have finished modifing it

[Gavin]

Thanks, I may try sketchup however today I  found a solution. I create my gears with an oversized shaft, export from gearotic as stl (because 3d dxf is very slow to process),and open in freecad. I then create my own solid to fill in the hole. From there I am good as long as I don't need to edit gearotic mesh.
Printed a test today.
http://Http://users.tpg.com.au/gbung3/bev.jpg

[Gavin]

Just an update.
I currently rely on netfab cloud service to repair my gearotic stls. Hopefully their service remains free or I will be in trouble.

[ArtF]

Gavin:

  I suspect they will remain free. However, at the moment Im doing a great deal of research on
that very topic. Its a very complex world, but Im intereste d in just how much power I can add
to the 3d models. Once, the 3d models were really only for show. The ability to put out a 3d dxf or
STL was just a very unimporta nt sideline, BUT  the numbers of letters and comments on 3d underscor e
their importanc e in a world about to be hit with 3d printers on a massive scale.  I figure I have a year or
so till I must have a better and more accurate 3d modeling structure .
   I appreciat e everyones patience on that issue, GM wasnt meant to be a 3d modeling package, but
Im certainly not opposed to going there. So expect me to be slow on future features till my research is
complete on 3d triangula tion and simulatio n codeing. In the end I hope to be able to put out 3d gearing
and mechanism models second to none. At the moment we are pretty rough as gears are not easy to
do in 3d with present code. Ill post periodica lly on where my research is taking me, when its this deep
and Im losing weeks of sleep thinking about variosu issues, it usually leads to something pretty cool...
usually.. .lol

Thx

Art

[Gavin]

Output to an open cad standard would be great as I could edit it directly with software like freecad.
I feel I've gotten good value from the software already and will be happy whenever there is any updates. For me I was supprised I couldn't find another bit of software to allow easy creation of 3d cad gears. In fact I somehow read the website, trailed the software, and purchased it believing its primary function was as a 3d modeler.  I must read a bit more of this forum, I'm guessing you use this to output directly to some sort of milling machine.

[ArtF]

Gavin:

  Actually, I use it mainly for dxf output myself, and I postproce ss in programs like Vectric , though I often just use the Gcode output as well. Its the 3d models that arent as good as Id like, though many use them for 3d printing, the resolutio n suffers above a certain tooth count.

  But like all things in CAD, the problems come in when one program doesnt recognise another's format, and DXF is very well known as being troubleso me as are stl and any 3d model. Triangula tion standards vary between various software programs.  Hopefully, youll see better and better output as time rolls along.

Art

[ftkalcevic]

I just tried InStep, http://www.solveering.com/instep.html, which can convert stl to step.  The plan was to use it to import into alibre design, but alibre choked on it because it was a 30MB file.  I tried a smaller file (I used wings3d to slice out 1 tooth), and that worked fine. 

Alibre can export stl, which I then use in slic3r.