Show HN: Free and local browser tool for designing gear models for 3D printing

53 pointsposted 4 days ago
by neogoose
(gears.dmtrkovalenko.dev)

13 Comments

leptons

4 days ago

It would be nice to have a way to output a corresponding gear. I can make a gear with small teeth with a wide gap between them, but the same gear wouldn't really work to engage with that gear, on the other gear the teeth would need to fill the wide gap of the first gear.

auxym

4 days ago

As long as you keep the module and pressure angle the same, the gears should be compatible.

leptons

3 days ago

Only works in a one-way system, which might be okay, but if bidirectional is a requirement then the other gear would be necessary. I suppose then just create a symmetrical gear. Sorry I'm not a gear-head.

auxym

4 days ago

This is great! Any chance you could add STEP export also? It would facilitate importing into CAD software to customize the gear, eg to add a custom hub.

concrete_head

3 days ago

Or even just the ability to export a 2d dxf which is probably simpler to implement.

STL and 3MF are not very compatible with most CAD software.

djfobbz

3 days ago

This is funny! Google AI Studio generated the exact same layout with exact same colors for my 3D app that I'm working on.

blorenz

4 days ago

This is so cool! I'll be using this when I need to generate gears. How is the fitment of the interfacing of the gears after printing? What libraries did you use to build this, too?

neogoose

4 days ago

I printed a lot of gears from this website (well I built it because I had to print a lot of different gears) and they came out very nice and reinforced. If you use the optimized for 3D printing export it doesn't need anything from your printer software to just print it, and they mesh with existing gears just fine (for sure if you calculated module correctly)

Libraries are simple: threejs for preview, meshlib for watertight export, used some frontend framework for state management too

blorenz

3 days ago

I was not aware of meshlib. I think this is a missing key part of something that I was trying to build into a web app from a Fusion360 flow I have. My flow is extruding paths from an SVG and then perform some boolean operations which meshlib will seem to fill.

kypro

4 days ago

Oh nice! I might use this.

I'm using Free Cad's Gear Workbench plugin at the moment. It's okay, but Free Cad kinda sucks.

You thinking about adding other gear types like bevel gears and gear racks?

neogoose

4 days ago

I should at some point, I do not need other gear types so I didn't do that, but if this project gets a little attention I'll just do it

ryanisnan

4 days ago

This looks awesome - my son loves gears, and my wife and I have been talking about buying him a 3D printer soon. Thank you!

adfm

3 days ago

This looks great on a handset. It’s self-contained and elegant. Great job!