Engineering

The real advantage of gear modelling in 3d is that gears in a mesh do not have to parallel each other. It is posible to demonstrate how gears can transfer rotation (and forces) to orientations other than the driving gear. This kind of transfer is possible by use of helical gears.

Finally, not perfect at all but working gear set in 3D. Thanks to asplech's blog about involute gear and this Spur Gear document, I finally get to know better about these cogged wheels.

Following the circle involute blog, I thought about creating a gear procedure for easy creation of different gears. The method used is quite differnt to the involute idea but the turtle geometry way of thinking and doing the gears. This prototype procedure utilised a simple regular poygon formula (repeat :sides [ fd 1 rt 360/:sides ]) and some built-in commands such as TOWARD and SETHEADING to rotate the turtle and get the directions needed.

As part of a project to make a nice gear mesh with logo, I wondered how to generate the involute of a circle.