Hey Everyone,
I’m new to Sketchup Make, and for my college class I’m tasked with modeling and 3d printing gears in Sketchup. I have a plugin for involute gears; does anyone know of a plugin that makes Rail Gears? Like the bottom piece in the image below:
Thanks!
How about ready-made rack gear components ?
Is the task to model the thing or to search a plugin for it?
You can use the two plugins “line” and “move” to create it…
There’s a plugin to make rack and pinion gears. You can either make the involute gear, the rack (rail), or both. The plugin can be found here.
[added]
I do not get, down anything with the plugins “rack and pinion”
Should we do more after installing it?
thanks.
The plugin file named jimhami42_rack_and_pinion.rb needs to be copied into the plugins folder and then re-launch SketchUp.
You can also download the RBZ file from here:
https://sites.google.com/site/spirixcode/code/jimhami42_rack_and_pinion.rbz
and install it as an extension.
It is installed correctly, the problem is that it does nothing when I click. Thank you very much Greetings.
I don’t know what to tell you … It’s been tested with 2015, but I hadn’t tested it yet with 2016 (BTW, I’m using Windows 7 on a desktop). So I downloaded the RBZ file and installed it. You should get a popup like:
or, if using metric units:
I can not see these dialog popup.
If you launch the Ruby Console before trying to use the plugin, it may give some information about any errors. The Ruby Console can be found on the Window menu.
Working perfectly in SU 2016 Win7 and Win10
This is indicating the Ruby console:
Error: #<ArgumentError: Cannot convert “1.0"” to Length>
C:/Users/Tecno/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2015/SketchUp/Plugins/jimhami42_rack_and_pinion.rb:99:in to_l' C:/Users/Tecno/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2015/SketchUp/Plugins/jimhami42_rack_and_pinion.rb:99:in jimhami42_rack_and_pinion_input’
C:/Users/Tecno/AppData/Roaming/SketchUp/SketchUp 2015/SketchUp/Plugins/jimhami42_rack_and_pinion.rb:251:in block in <module:RackAndPinion>' SketchUp:1:in call’
Merry Christmas, from Spain.
I appreciate you taking the time to help troubleshoot this … this helped me pinpoint the location of the error. Although the syntax that is used shouldn’t cause any problems, I changed it to something that will hopefully eliminate the problems you’re having. I’ve updated the plugin on the website … you can also download it here.
jimhami42_rack_and_pinion.rbz (3.4 KB)
[added] I also fixed the bug in the “Thickness” field.
Thanks for your interest, the problem remains the same, I tested it in version 2015 and 2016.
Greetings.
I have a theory about the error.
The code uses ‘1.0"’ as the default [one inch in text format].
In the set up for the dialog it uses .to_l to convert it to a length in current units.
So for a user like the author [or me] it works - because '1.0"'.to_l returns a ‘length’ object e.g. 25.4mm or 1.0"
BUT if the user has a computer where the . [full-stop] is NOT the decimal point but a , [comma] is used, then the .to_l fails because the text version is not convertible to a ‘length’ as it’s expecting a comma.
This decimal-separator is a common set up in much of Europe and some other areas…
However, the fix for this is quite easy - edit the code setting up the defaults to avoid using any decimal-separators in the text versions at all.
So in…
line#242 change
dict['p_rad'] = '1.0"' to dict['p_rad'] = '1"'
line#244 change
dict['h_dia'] = '0.0"’ to dict['h_dia'] = '0"'
line#245 change
dict['k_width'] = '0.0"' to dict['k_width'] = '0"'
line#247 change
dict['thick'] = '0.0"' to dict['thick'] = '0"'
It will then work on either ‘.’ or ‘,’ decimal-separator computers…
Thanks for not only figuring this out, but also providing a simple solution. I’m still working on getting my code to work for everyone and not just for me since I work almost exclusively in decimal inches.
I’ve updated the file on the website and offer yet another version for @tecnozati to try.
jimhami42_rack_and_pinion.rbz (3.5 KB)
TIG and especially jimhami42, thank you, thank you, I and my students appreciate it sincerely.
Have a great Christmas.
I’m glad it’s working for you. However, the “especially” belongs to @TIG … I don’t think I would have ever figured out the problem you were having. Cheers!
