Are gear mates really that hard to do in OnShape?

wesley_church

Maybe just me, but gear mates in OnShape seem much harder than in Solidworks (from which I'm trying to migrate our HS robotics team).  I'm importing parts (gears) from AndyMark which are being (dual planar) mated to a hex shaft.  The hex shaft is fixed mated to a hex bearing mounted in a hole in a base plate.  The bearing is revolute mated to the base plate hole.  Similarly for the meshing gear.  I gather I have to calculate the ratio between the diameters of the two gears, and use the two bearing mounting revolute mates to mate the gears, is this right?  Is it an IP issue that you can't just click on circular face of each gear and have the gear mate created?

matthew_stacy

@wesley, mating gears is not particularly difficult in Onshape.  Use REVOLUTE or other appropriate mates to constrain the motion of each gear individually.  Then apply a Gear RELATION to those MATES.  The attached screenshot illustrates a typical feature tree for this.

Take a deep breathe and slowly repeat the phrase, "Onshape is different than SolidWorks".  Onshape offers some very unique and generally innovative workflows but will force you to unlearn some of your old standbys.

matthew_stacy

@wesley, mating gears is not particularly difficult in Onshape.  Use REVOLUTE or other appropriate mates to constrain the motion of each gear individually.  Then apply a Gear RELATION to those MATES.  The attached screenshot illustrates a typical feature tree for this.

Take a deep breathe and slowly repeat the phrase, "Onshape is different than SolidWorks".  Onshape offers some very unique and generally innovative workflows but will force you to unlearn some of your old standbys.

wesley_church

Thanks, Matthew.  Just the problem of teaching an old dog new tricks.  I did get spoiled having the software calculate the ratios for me.

matthew_stacy

@wesley_church, as an aging dog myself I can certainly appreciate the challenge of un-learning years of SolidWorks.  My mantra comes from the movie Cool-Hand-Luke where the warden tells Luke, "You got to get your mind right Luke".

Onshape has so many unique capabilities and novel workflows that I find it worth the effort.  And with a three-week release cycle the future is extremely bright!

Cheers