Automatic Gear and Spurs Generation

[Uilian_Souza]

Hello CREO community!

We often face the challenge of modeling complex gear pairs and splined shafts in CREO Parametric. We always strive to follow international standards to ensure the design is as accurate as possible for manufacturing. However, detailing the tooth profiles according to the standards in every project is very time-consuming.

My question is: Is there any plugin or specialized software that integrates with CREO and generates these gear profiles in a more automated way?

Here is an example of a plugin that integrates with SolidWorks, NX, Solid Edge, and Inventor.

https://www.eassistant.eu/en

Best regards,

Uilian de Souza

[Van_AG]

In our company, custom start models are used for these purposes. End user creates a new model using the gear start model as a template. Then the user changes several driving parameters to obtain the required gear profile, in accordance with the standard. And then continues modeling in the usual way. Or copies the gear profile into the old model, which needs to be modified. If you are a cad-administrator or an advanced user, you need to prepare one time such start highly-parameterized models for end user, so they do not waste time on routine procedures.

[Uilian_Souza]

Templates are a good strategy. We have a parameterized template for splined shafts and sleeves, but the parameterization was quite complex to adapt to the standard we are following, and we do not have the correct profile of the tooth envelope. That’s why I asked if there is something already developed, as the end user is not always familiar with which parameters need to be changed in the part when using the template. Thanks for the tip — I’m considering revisiting the parameterization of these templates.

[tbraxton]

If you are not planning to invest in the development of custom programs using one of the APIs (Pro/Toolkit) then I would suggest that you consider the use of notebooks (*.lay) (formerly layouts). These can be used to input parameters in a more user-friendly way as graphical information can be placed in the layouts to document what parameters are present and how they change the models.

Layouts along with templates/start parts can be leveraged to automate the creation model variants.

Video overview:

Creo Parametric - Top Down Design - Notebooks

[Michael]

I was a machinist and made many gears.

Gears are made by creating a turned blank and using a specific hob gear cutter to mill and index each gullet. The end result are the teeth left over after milling. 

Many gear programs work the opposite way by adding a tooth instead of a gullet cut. If you want true gear geometry, consider a workflow where you cut the gullet with the exact profile of the specific hob gear mill that will machine it. It’s in the machinery handbook. 

Modeling teeth is problematic in my experience. 

[Uilian_Souza]

Thank you for your comment. I agree with the points you mentioned, Michael, and that’s exactly how we’re doing it — we’re modeling the cut as if it were the machining tool. I believe the cutting profile we’re using doesn’t fully represent the actual profile. As I mentioned in the previous response, we’re going to review our template, both in terms of parameterization and the cutting profile applied.