Cycloidal drives in Fusion 360 - plugin

Hello everyone. In this video I’ll present a new plugin for making cycloidal drives in Fusion 360. All links both to the installers and other pages are available under the video. If you like this please thumbs up and subscribe the channel. Interface is divided into 3 tabs and few common areas visible always like “Menu”, estimated time and messages. You can switch units between millimeters and inches.

00:30 - First tab shows most important setting like spacing radiuses, diameters, eccentricity, number of pins/rollers, bolts and thickness of elements. There’s also displayed other automatically calculated dimensions like root and outside radius of planet and diameter of bolt. Second tab contains setting for changing backlash between planets and rollers. Here is also a switch for adding joints – I’ll talk about it later. On the last tab there are links to documentation, policy link, path to the plugin’s TEMP folder and button for checking updates.

01:05 - Documentation can be also displayed by clicking the “i” icon in the bottom of the plugin window. Each input is described and explained by graphics. Ranges of parameters can be checked in the documents pointed on the last tab but remember that they often depends on other settings. In the “Menu” section you have access to few groups of buttons. “Parameters” is mainly used to save parameters to the file or load from it. You can also reset current setting by pressing the third button. “Preview type” is used to visualize dimensions and alignments of elements. Dimensions of entire set are displayed both in millimeters and inches. If you need to see detailed information about elements you can switch to the third mode. There are some additional data like, for example, root and outside diameter in case of planets.

01:54 - Right above the “OK” button there’s an estimation time message which shows amount of time needed by the plugin for making elements. The more runs, the more accurate estimation. There’s also an error/information section but it’s only visible when some entered values are outside range or causes problems for other settings. Sections like “Housing”, “Planetary disk” or “Output shaft” contain parameters specific for the elements. Second planet can be added when there is only even number of rollers.

02:26 - Plugin doesn’t create bearings or any elements like shims, sleeves, Seeger rings – they must be created and arranged separately. Now, let’s take a look how to use motion links. Formulas are saved in properties of each component. Input shaft is always a start joint while planet or output as the second one. Let’s automate it, for example turn input shaft about 720 deg. and back. Second example will be slightly complicated but will show how to use this with planetary gears. Assume that on the output side we need 4 planets with herringbone teeth and 30 helix angle in normal view. We don’t want profile shifting, so number of sun teeth will be 12, planets 18, and ring 48. Center distance is known, so we need to set bolt’s spacing radius with the same value and use 4 bolts as gears’ axles. For making it as simple as possible I’ll copy only one planet to the second design. That’s all.

12:42 - I hope presented examples will be useful for further designing. If you like this please thumbs up and subscribe the channel. Thank you for watching it and see you next time. Bye. .