[velociSSimo]

Originally Posted by BumblebeeAmigo

MEs: Theres enough of you on here I'm hoping someone may be able to help! What do you use to draw gears? what about simulating gears?

I am trying to draw some gear trains for a patent application, and haven't had any luck with anything I've been using. I picked up some gear simulation software, but it wouldn't let me do some of the things I'm trying to do (such as create a gear with both internal and external teeth)

Eventually I'd also like to simulate my gear trains for optimizations sake, and to calculate the specs for the parts prior to putting in an MO.

I used Catia when I was in college, but that is unreal how pricey it is. I think I'm going to probably end up having to buy SolidWorks, but its kind of pricey too (although a lot cheaper than Catia, it gets a lot more expensive, especially when I pick up the simulation add-on, but we don't need to use the stress analysis features yet, so would be willing to use a less-impressive software package) AutoCad Inventor may also do it, but I haven't been able to figure that out for sure yet.

Any insight? What would you recommend?

We have solid works and AutoCad Inventor at work. I don't do much design, but I can ask around today with some of the guys who do. Especially our driveline group, they may know.