[BobWarfield]

Since reading about the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient astronomical clock, I have been fooling around with a design for such a thing. I don't know that I'll ever have the time or talent to build such a thing, but it is a fascinating thing to doodle in Rhino about.

I am keeping my notebook on the design here:

http://www.thewarfields.com/MT/CCOrreryNotes.html

Here are a couple shots from Rhino of some of the work I'm doing on it:

http://www.thewarfields.com/img/Toys...erspective.jpg

http://www.thewarfields.com/img/Toys.../ZodiacTop.jpg

I can imagine that to create such a thing out of brass would require quite a lot of intricate CNC work!

Best Regards,

BW

[chmillman]

You're not doing this in Alibre?

If you're going to be making geartrains in Rhino, you might check out this useful script for making involute gear profiles:

http://www.rayflectar.com/Rhino/Rhin...ts-Gallery.htm

--ch

[BobWarfield]

I'd love to try Alibre, but I finally had to give up on it.

I've tried downloading and reinstalling Alibre 3 times, and never got the trial to work. It defaults to 2 1/2 D Alibre Xpress every time. I posted to their forum and got no help. Rhono, Mach3, and OneCNC all treated me a lot better, and life is short, so I moved on. I may look at it again sometime, but I'm not too inclined at the moment.

For these drawings, Rhino has been more than fine by the way. The research on how the thing has to work and then conceptualizing how I wanted it to look took far longer than doing the drawings.

Thanks for the link. I have a set of involute cutters I will likely use if I actually choose to go forward with the clock project, but I may try CNC'ing some larger gears for another project.

Best,

BW

[ger21]

It defaults to 2 1/2 D Alibre Xpress every time.

Alibre Xpress is not 2-1/2D?? You start out sketching in 2D, but it is a full 3D modeler. Or am I misunderstanding you??

[BobWarfield]

Alibre Xpress is not 2-1/2D?? You start out sketching in 2D, but it is a full 3D modeler. Or am I misunderstanding you??

In my copy, all of the 3D commands are grayed out, and the help file says you have to buy the real product to get the 3D. If there is a secret I'm unware of on that, please share, I'd love to play with it more as I say.

If this isn't what the difference is between free and $900, I'm also curious what is?

Best,

BW

[ger21]

Are you talking about this from the help file?

Creating 3D Sketches may not be available to Alibre Design Xpress users. Please contact Alibre Sales or visit www.alibre.com/store for information on upgrading your version of Alibre Design, as well as other available products.

If so, you don't need to do 3D sketches to create 3D models in Xpress. 3D sketches are for more advanced stuff, which is why they aren't included in Xpress.

Have you tried to work through any tutorials?

[BobWarfield]

Gerry, I will try again without the 3D menus and see how far I get. Good idea.

Best,

BW