Creating Gear Joints

You can create a gear joint to combine the rotational motion of two revolute joints about the same axis.

This task shows you how to:

See Also
About Joints

Define the Properties

  1. From the Mechanism section of the action bar, click Joint .
  2. In the dialog box, select Gear from the list of joint types.
  3. In the Definition section of the dialog box, select the two shaft connections between which to create the joint.
    1. Click the Shaft 1 joint box and select a revolute joint in the work area.
    2. Click the Shaft 2 joint box and select a second revolute joint in the work area.
    The name of the two joints appear in the corresponding boxes.
  4. To create a new joint:
    1. Click Create new joint .

      Tip: You can also click and select Create new Joint.

    2. In the dialog box, define a new joint. For more information, see Creating Joints.
    3. Click OK.
    The new joint appears in the tree and in the box.
  5. Optional: To modify your selection, do one of the following:
    • Click and select Clear selection.
    • Select another element in the work area or in the tree.
  6. Specify a value for the gear ratio in Gear ratio w_1/w_2.
  7. Enter a value for the angle offset of each shaft joint.
  8. In the tree, the joint appears under the Joints node.

Edit the Joint

  1. To edit a joint, in the tree, do one of the following:
    • Double-click a joint.
    • Right-click a joint and select Definition from the object menu.
  2. In the dialog box, edit the joint parameters.
  3. Click OK.

    Note: To modify the general properties or graphical properties of the element, right-click the element in the tree and select Properties. For more information, see Displaying Properties.