Worm Drive Maker
Description
The plugin creates worm drives (worm as archimedian screw) for various set of parameters. The program lets to choose the system of the module, dimensioning of the module, units and much more. Parameters and descriptions of functions are available in Guide.pdf. Information about invoices is available in Consulting Services section (please click More to expand the section).
Execution in most cases takes about a minute on i7/8GB RAM/512GB SSD computer.
Disclaimer
The plugin doesn't check interferences automatically and doesn't perform any analysis of prepared components. Please make sure that the necessary check is done before releasing this onto production. You must be aware that the real dimensions of manufactured components may be different than in the design. Every material has different characteristics and its parameters may change during time depending on the kind of material, temperature and humidity of the environment, workload, etc. The simplest motion analysis can be done by using joints and motion rules prepared by the plugin. Both involute and trochoid interferences can be checked by eyes but there’s a better, dedicated built-in tool (TOOLS à Interference) available in Autodesk® Fusion 360™.
I previously posted a nearly identical review for the Rack and Gear Maker add-in by Shwivel. I'm pasting a similar review here because the Worm Gear add-in is equally phenomenal.
love it. I tried some free add-ins, but this one is a no brainer and is worth paying for.
Firstly, it has 1 very important parameter that I didn't find in any of the (many) add-ins I tried: clearance!
While backlash is important (and Shwivel has this), clearance is another one. Shwivel will automatically allow you to set a clearance amount (e.g. 0.2mm), and it will reduce the length of the tooth by that much. That way, the tip of the tooth isn't grinding up against the mating gear. While this doesn't matter for 3D modeling a gear in software only, it is important in the real-world because imperfections in manufacturing tolerances mean that you need to create some wiggle room otherwise the teeth won't spin smoothly because they will always be grinding against each other.
Depending on the type of gear, some add-ins let you go back and manually edit the sketch to add your own clearance, but it is laborious and can be difficult for more complex types of gears (e.g. worm gears).
The clearance feature alone was a huge save.
Then, Shwivel also lets you preview the gear before you actually confirm the settings, so you can get a quick idea of how it will look.
It also displays implied parameters (e.g. if you select module and #teeth, it will tell you what the pitch diameter will end up being), which is very important to me because I want to make sure I'm doing the right thing before exporting.
Lastly, the worm drive and worm gear are automatically oriented correctly in relation to each other, so there is no extra effort or guesswork when positioning them in your design.
I have used this plugin to successfully create a gearbox using a Worm Gear made from this plugin, and a regular Spur Gear created from the Rack and Gear add-in also from Shwivel. Technically, the gear that mates with a Worm Drive is a helical gear (which Shwivel generates properly), but for my design I wanted to use a regular spur gear (which is not typically the correct thing to do), but it worked anyway.
These were SLA printed gears on the order of 10-15mm in pitch diameter.
Very impressed, and thank you for such a great add-in!
Works nice and relatively easy. A written documentation for the parameters would be nice
It works very well. I'm using it to make a gripper for a 6-axis robot arm.
I wish there was an option to add a second gear on the other side of the worm gear.
Вполне хорошая визуализация. Точная геометрия.
Из минусов - не формирует таблицу параметров. Очень бы пригодилось.