Copyright: Copyright © 1995 Gamma Software


Contents
Gear

This example assumes you understand all the material presented in the tutorials and are familiar with Windows and this help facility.

This example will demonstrate how to create a simple gear.  Remember, if a draw or edit command doesn't turn out the way it was supposed to, you can use the Edit/Undo command to undo it.  Also, remember to save your drawing periodically during this tutorial to avoid losing your work.

Choose the File/New command to start a new drawing.

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Gear

Choose the Draw/Circle command and bring up the coordinate input dialog (click the right mouse button in the drawing area).  Make sure the XY Input radio button is selected and enter (0,0) for the circle center.  Bring up the coordinate input dialog again and select Polar Input.  Input a distance of 6 and an angle of 0.  A circle with radius 6 is created in the drawing area.  Choose the View/Zoom extents command to see the entire circle.

For now we will turn off the page display.  Choose the Options/Display page command.  The page will be removed from the drawing.

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Gear

Choose the Draw/Line command and set the Center snap mode.  Move the box cursor over the circle, as shown below, and click the left mouse button.

Bring up the coordinate input dialog and enter a polar coordinate with a distance of 6 and and angle of 4.  The drawing will look like the figure below.

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Gear

Choose the Draw/Line command again and snap to the center of the circle for the first point, as you did for the previous line.  Enter a polar coordinate with a distance of 6 and angle of -4 for the second point.  Draw another line from the center of the circle with a distance of 6 and an angle of -6.  The drawing should look like the figure below.

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Gear

Choose the Edit/Fillet command and enter a fillet radius of 0.4.  Select the first 2 lines we drew for the lines to fillet, as in the figure below.

The drawing will now look like this.

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Gear

Zoom in on the bottom line and the filleted lines using the View/Zoom window command.  Use the Draw/Line command and the End element snap to connect the bottom 2 lines, as in the figure below.

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Gear

Choose the View/Zoom extents command to zoom to the drawing extents.  Select the View/Zoom factor command and enter a factor of "0.8."  Choose the Draw/Point command and the End element snap.  Move the mouse cursor box over the left end of the longer line and click the left mouse button.  This places a point at the center of the circle.

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Gear

Choose the Edit/Select/Add and then the Edit/Select/Select one command.  Pick the circle and the bottom line to select them.  Choose the Edit/Delete command to delete them.

The drawing should now look like this.

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Gear

Now we will copy this tooth around the gear.  Move the mouse cursor to position 1 in the figure below and click and drag the mouse cursor to position 2.  The drawing elements will be selected.

Choose the Edit/Copy command and set the Point snap mode.  Select position 3, in the figure above, for the copy reference point.  Next, choose the Edit/Paste command and select position 3 for the paste alignment point.

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Gear

We have now pasted another copy of the drawing elements over the original ones.  The original copy is still selected, so we will rotate it.  Choose the Edit/Rotate command and select the point on the left as the rotation reference point.  Enter a rotation angle of 10.  When the program rotates the original elements, it erases them (erasing the copy as well) and draws them in the rotated position.  The copy of these elements appears to be gone but they are still there.  Choose View/Redraw to see them.

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Gear

Select all the drawing elements and copy and paste them using the point on the left as the reference point.

Choose the Edit/Rotate command and use the point as the reference point.  Enter a rotation angle of 20.  Choose View/Redraw.

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Gear

Select all the drawing elements and copy and paste them using the point on the left as the reference point.

Choose the Edit/Rotate command and use the point as the reference point.  Enter a rotation angle of 40.  Choose View/Redraw.

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Gear

The elements you just rotated remain selected.  We will now copy those around the gear.  Choose the Edit/Copy command and then the Edit/Paste command, using the point in the center as the reference point.  Choose the Edit/Rotate command, using the same reference point and an angle of 40.  Select View/Redraw.

Repeat the above procedure until the gear is complete.

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Gear

The gear should now look like the figure below.

Choose the Draw/Circle command.  Select the point element snap and pick the point in the center of the gear as the center of the circle.  Bring up the coordinate input dialog and enter the polar coordinates (6,0), 6 for the distance and 0 for the angle.  Select the point as the center of another circle and enter the polar coordinates (1,0) for the second point.

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Gear

We will now add some dimensions to the drawing.  Use the Option/Dimension properties/Dimension arrow scale and Dimension offset commands to set the arrow head scale and dimension offset to 0.5.  Choose Options/Text properties/Text font and choose the Arial font and a point size of 48.

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Gear

Choose the Draw/Dimension/Radial command and select the outside circle as the element to dimension.  Pick point around position 1, in the figure below, as the dimension point.

The program will display the radius of the circle.  Press OK to select the default dimension text and the program will add the dimension.

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Gear

Add another radial dimension to the center circle, as in the figure below.

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Gear

Choose the Edit/Select/Select one command and move the box cursor over the outside circle.  Click the left mouse button to select it.  Next, choose the Edit/Change command and click on the Line Type radio button in the change dialog and press OK.  Choose the Dash line type in the next dialog and press OK.  The line type of the outside circle is changed to dashed.  Choose the Edit/Select/Clear command to unselect the circle.

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Gear

Now we will plot the gear.  Choose the Options/Display page command to turn the page display back on.  First we must set up the printer or plotter.  Choose the File/Print/plot setup command and select the desired printer/plotter and paper size.  Make sure the printer is in Portrait mode and press OK.

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Gear

The next step is to set the plot scale factor and page origin so the drawing fits on the page.  Choose the File/Page setup/Fit drawing to page command.  The program calculates a plot scale which makes the drawing as large as possible on the page.  Round the value up to the nearest whole number.  For example, if the program displays a scale of 2.03, enter a value of 3.  Next, the program asks if you want to zoom to the new page.  Press Yes.  The drawing will be centered on the page.

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Gear

Choose the File/Print/plot command.  The program displays the print dialog.  Click on OK to accept the default parameters.  The program will display a dialog while it is creating the output.  This dialog contains only one button, Cancel.  If you click on this button or press Enter, the print operation will be canceled and no printout created.  Wait for this dialog to disappear and the printout is then sent to the specified device by the print manager.

This ends this example.