Learn Fusion 360 or Die Trying LESSON 9: Design Helical Gears for 3D Printing 

I've been struggling to make the move from SketchUp to Fusion 360, but with these wonderful videos I've finally made it. I think what makes the difference is that, as well as understanding Fusion 360, you also know how to teach. I know you sometimes wonder if the pace is too slow. Don't change a thing! Repetition and review are absolutely key to effective learning. I love the way you just keep calm and carry on when things don't go quite right. I'm fed up of slick presentations where everything works perfectly first time. Learning how to correct errors is a really important part of building new skills, and you teach that as well. Thanks very much!

Helical gear teeth mesh more smoothly, and therefore more quietly than straight-cut gears. As you remark, helical gears also have a "thrust side" which is a serious factor in transmission housing design. Trucks and racecars generally use straight-cut gears because the thrust/side loads are very high and the transmission housings would have to also be massive and heavy. Straight-cut gears are nearly as strong as helicals, but can be very noisy. Passenger cars typically use helicals to cut down on noise. Herringbone gears balance out the thrust side, but are very troublesome and expensive to make with conventional tooling. Herringbone tooth patterns are childsplay for additive manufacturing. I trust we'll see more herringbone gears as additive manufacturing gets stronger and stronger. Another good video, Thanks!

I discovered this while working through this video. When you move a component, there is a checkbox to "capture position", if you check that before hitting okay on the move, it will go ahead and capture the position during the move, rather than prompting you later. If anyone sees this, I would also read Tim Graves comment, it may be worth looking more into how the timeline works in fusion 360.

Two things to make it easer. 1) When you create the gear, underneath the preview check-box is "Gear Parameters". Expand that out and it has the inner (root) and outer (outside) parameters listed. 2) When you move the component at the bottom of the move menu underneath the target selections is a check-box "Capture Position" which stops the silliness of it moving around when sketch editing is turned on and off.

It's bad practice to extrude an object to create a hole on another object by just dragging all the way up or down and keep dragging a little more, as if you were giving it a little margin. It's best to change the setting extent from 'distance' to 'to object' (on the extrude panel) and then select the outter face of the object where the extrusion needs to stop. That way, if you change dimensions in the future, the hole is always going to be there.

I've now watched Lessons 1-9 and have learned a ton. These lesson projects are so much fun! I am also an electrical engineer but just love 3D modeling and 3D printing my own creations. My mechanical engineers are probably getting sick of me telling them of my new home hobby...something they do all day every day at work. Thank you Paul!

By the way, Paul, you know how you hate how F360 turns off the sketch after your first extrusion? I did too. Watching Lars Christensen video, he mentioned there is a new preference to NOT turn them off. Check Preferences/General/Design/"Auto hide sketch on feature creation" and turn that check box off. Ta-dah!

Paul, I cannot stress to you enough the value of your lessons. As I have explained before I have taken MANY CAD and Fusion Courses from various colleges, none have made this as understandable as you. Sure, I know all kinds of shortcuts and what not but, without understanding the basics they are useless. More importantly your teaching style is the bridge between artists and mechanical engineers. I believe there is an inventor in every artist. These videos can help turn artists into makers.. I am a member of several tattoo artists groups and I will be posting links to your videos. With your lessons and crowd funding who knows what we can develop. Big thanks and loads of respect sir. Keep up the good work!

Just spent 4 hours going through your lectures - I'm up to three! on Fusion 360 - how wonderful it is to have a great teacher, teaching! Love these and your style and approach is excellent. Really enjoying getting back uptodate on CAD/CAM my AnyCubic i3 Mega s is expected soon! Autocad has changed a lot in the last 25 years or so - amazingly good. Please keep up the good work - nice to see a teacher, not just a trainer! I thoroughly recommend this guy - well done Sir!

The reason that your components keep moving back to the original location is because you're editing the original sketch, and that's where they were when that sketch was created. It's all down in the timeline. As I said in a comment over in lesson 6 (I think it was there) you would do yourself some good learning to bone up on the timeline. It's super useful and explains some of the "oddness" of what you're seeing. (Remember in the beginning lessons how you said F360 can be confusing because object won't move or they react funny and it's because we haven't learned how to deal with constraints? This is the same idea: you're seeing funny things because you haven't dug into the timeline and it's capabilities yet. :-) ) By the way, not criticizing at all. I've been learning a lot with you, but I did do some other tutorials that have covered other things that you haven't touched on yet, and one of those is the timeline, so I thought I'd share and maybe you turn that into a video for folks. :-)

As always, I am truly enjoying learning about Fusion 360 from you. You aren't talking to empty space as far as I am concerned. I think the speed you are going is perfect, at least for me. When things don't go the way you expected, I learn by figuring out different ways to do the same thing. I don't always follow every step you make which is why I know I am learning from you. Keep up the good work. I appreciate all your effort and the time you put into making these videos.

Thank you for the video. Please note that there is no need to try to measure the gear dimensions. The gear generator provides all or the gear's engineering details in a drop down located at the bottom of the generator window. The value you are looking for is the "pitch diameter". Divide by 2 to get the pitch radius. Add to this the pitch radius of the 2nd gear to find the exact axle-to-axle spacing. Add any backlash as you see fit. If you overlay (construction) circles of the pitch radii of meshing gears you will see that they just touch, whilst the teeth extend beyond this boundary without clashing.

Thanks again for the great video. FYI - rather than creating a sketch to measure the diameter/radius of the gears you could use the Inspect --> measure tool. (I learned this earlier today.)

Thanks Paul for these tutorials. I have fought Fusion 360 for over a year and have been successful but have wasted so much time. Your videos really helps.

Two months ago, I started to learn fusion 360 and I quit. A few days ago I Saw your fusion video series , now I'm feeling like a fusion pro . Thank you very much for your time !. You sir, are an excellent teacher. Greetings from Argentina.

When extruding components (IE. the holes in the gears), try extruding "to object" and selecting the opposite side of the gear. Dragging it out into space may cause you problems down the track if you ever wish to change the dimensions. I understand it's not really necessary for this particular design due to it's simplicity but it's a good habit to get into. Great tutorial series!

Paul, everyday you are blowing my mind! I love it when you make mistakes, because you are helping me understand what mistakes I am making, why and most most of all, how to fix it. Can't recommend your videos more. Every time I am about to give up fusion 360, you virtually hold my hand and get me to the next level. I feel like I am playing a geometry video game. thank you sir!

Hi Paul I have been trying to learn Fusion 360 for a year and you are helping me a lot, THANK YOU

Great stuff as usual. You do an excellent job of projecting yourself into my space (sounds a bit hippy, but you know what I mean). It’s a great skill to really be able to make the camera disappear.

am a Solidworks user and slowly migrating to fusion, I find your tutorials very helpful. Keep it up

Excellent series, thank you. I love the way you invent words. The gear you're describing is a helical gear ("having the shape of a helix or spiral"). Helictical is an unnecessary neologism.

You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna loose my mind with you constantly repeating: What am I gonna do! But that said I am very glad you made this video. It was a big help! And you know what I'm a gonna do? I'm gonna subscribe. Thanks!

I try to learn the basics for years on the free option of fusion 360, i have watched several tutorials over the years on youtube but noon compares to the ease of your learning tutorials. it should be mandatory that everyone watch your videos first before looking at any others.- your tutorials are well received and appreciated. - thank you, Paul, you made it easier for me learn Fusion 360 and I love this program.....

Another way to measuring the diameter of the gear select measure or press (i) on keyboard. when the box comes up > select face/edge/vortex and tick show snap points. snap points to measure and distance will show up.make sure you select points that are straight across.for the inside diameter you might have a hard time going straight across for a precise measurement, so just draw a construction line across perfectly centered then use the measure tool on the construction line snap points for the most precise measurement.

You're such a great instructor! There must be hundreds of us out here. I wish I could meet you and talk tech.

In the new interface I found the add-in under TOOLS, hope this will help anyone looking for add in with the new face. Thanks again Paul for all the time you have given us.

HI Paul, just wanted to thank you again for this series. I started last year and have been away from it for a while. But i have got some time and a desire to carry on with it and have been making great progress with your help. Much appreciated.

I am new to Fusion 360 and I am really enjoying your videos. I had seen a couple done by other folks but I really like your teaching method and the way you have progressed, beginning with the basics and building on them in the next video. One thing I might suggest is that you close the data panel on the left of the screen to give you a larger sketching/modeling surface.

I had to restart F360 for the helical gear to show up

Great video, I would love to see how inside helical gears designed, like the ring around a planetary gear system.

Another great video Paul, you can just measure the diameter of the gear using the "Measure tool. Measure between 2 diagonal points crossing the middle point. The result is d = 68.354 or your measured r = 34.177 times 2.

My understanding of helical gears is that you have more effective contact area , spreading the loading over several teeth @ the same time . Less noisy that a spur / straight cut gear , but a little more lossy because the two wheels " screw up " against each other , requiring bearing faces detail on the end of the gear & the surfaces of the box .

Paul, great videos. Your teaching style has really helped a filthy casual like me understand how to use this tool!

Everything was fantastic. thanks for your valuable time for making the video and uploading it.

Another great lesson. You are including a lot of things I have not found in other F360 tutorials. Thanks.

I do try to experiment when I am going through your awesome videos and find out that darn, there are a lot of settings and I have got myself in trouble but have learned to get my out of trouble also. Thank you for all your hard work.

Heck man, you really get the creative juices flowing!!!

I've learned so much from this series. I'm hoping later in the series you cover cylinders with different diameters. Such as say a travel coffee cup that steps to a larger diameter towards the top.

Thank's Paul (from spain). You explain everything in a simple and understandable way. I like the way you talk ... BOOM !!! ;-) ;-) ;-)

I don't even need to watch these to give them thumbs up. Your series is awesome

One word Paul, Wow! Amazing and i do believe i could actually design and make this albeit this is not what i started watching this series for, i have a specific idea in mind but i am learning all the time and hopefully i will be able to master this in time. Super video as always delivered at a good learning speed, thank you very much Paul!

Paul, I’ve learned some really good things from you so far in this series and I’m grateful, and looking forward to them continue! One design comment on this one: in my opinion you made a major faux pas when you extruded the hole in gear center... imho you should never extrude a hole to a random depth, as it could ultimately cut other components also... the recommended approach is to extrude to a surface which in this case is the backside of he gear.. this ensures that you don’t inadvertently cut away from other components. This can become even more important when you start working in the timeline. This is constructive input as I’ve learned a tremendous amount from you!

I know this vid is a bit old now, but you don't have to orbit around to select a plane that's under or even inside your objects! All you have to do if hover your mouse over where that plane should be, and then left click and HOLD the button down and a selection box appears, allowing you to select that hidden plane (or anything else under your mouse cursor).

well done paul, i am learning a lot with this courses, congrats

As I was waiting for lesson 9, i tried to look at other tutorials on Fusion 360 and I run out of them like a little girl :). Thank you Paul for these tutorials, so simple and straightforward to follow. Keep them coming.

PAUL,, you are one of the best instructors on the internet. Video 09 your objects laying down and I see the Z axis and mine has the red and blue axis, how do I orient my drawing to be like yours. I would love it if you did a Zbrush course

Thanx Wiliam Sandoval for the tip about how to get the plug-in...

Thank you Sir, I am learning a lot from your tutorial.

Great instructions, thanks for the wonderful step by step.

You are a great teacher. Keep it up

Very nice video. Very easy to follow. And everything worked. Nothing like doing a tutorial that you can't do some things

thanks a lot, i had started with the tutorial on fusion360 site but were quite difficult to start with. i really like your explanation.

lol @ the helictical gears. I admire you for trying... helical gears are awesome. they run quieter than spur (straight teeth) gears.

Just to note that if you right click when working out the dimensions of the gear you could have changed the measurement from 'Radius' to 'Diameter'.

Stop that nonsense... BOOM. Loved it. Learned it. Built it. Great tutorial. +1

Again, as usual, a super tutorial. Thank you so much.

Another great video, clear instructions and easy to follow. Looking forward to the next one.

This is way better than a fidget spinner. Thanks Paul

Excellent presentation, clear and totally enjoyable! Thank you Sir!

The gear M-odule is NOT roughly related to the toothsize or other parameters. All around gears is very exactly defined. With a couple of formulas one is able to make up distances of axles, Gears circomference, number of teeth etc. The MODULE numbers also defines the form of the teeth, going up in numbers the tooth are changing in form, very subtle but very important to use the right Module. Has to do withe the rolling pattern of the interacting gears. I did a lot of routing gears in brass and have quite a collection of router tools. Each module number requires his own set of toolings. IT is really exact science. To prevent teeth from breaking of it is advised to do some rounding at the base of the teeth. Especially Resin or nylon teeth are prone to notching due to the constantly changing of the forcing acting on the teeth. In plastics engineering Notching effects are a very important item with the design. The way you calculate will result in not very long lasting gears. I'm in the process of converting to Fusion 360 for this items but following this calculation scheme resulted in very quick breaking down the gears and not related to 3D resins, but due to much too tight intermeshing of the produced gears. In one occasion I was able to correct the mistake, by refurnishing it on the router with the appropiate tools ( The Module tools). I hope in the future Fusion will correct on these small but very important mistakes.

I like how Paul asks the question, “What will happen if both gear teeth are right handed or both are left handed? ... anyone, anyone?” Bueller, Bueller. You can tell he was a school teacher.

Excellent job!

Paul, I've been enjoying your fusion videos, I have been tryingto learn fusion360 for years without joy these videos are helping greatly, but, it pains me to see you measuring metric spur gears, the beauty of the module system is that these dimensions are easy to find. The pitch circle diameter is the number of teeth times the module. 18 x 3 mm. the distance between centers is the pcd's of the two gears added together and divided by two. If you google "metrics in engineering - metric gears " you can find some useful info. The outside diameter involves the addendum. Hope this helps

The 'capture position ' option appears in the move/copy selection you first make. Selecting the check box here will stop that pop-up coming up and will also stop the gear from snapping back to the original position (although it still happens when you select sketch mode :S) It would have been nice if you carried on with the parametric design theory for this video. Great lessons btw. You've taught me so much, about Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and now Fusion360. Keep up the good work Paul!

Great Video, appreciate the explanations around fusion 360 as i'm new to using the software and following along was easy and learnt more about the software.

Great series im going to have to go through all of it. Ty

Another great lesson!

Great video, as usual. If I had any friends I would tell them about it..

You are amazing! The perfect teacher

Great video Paul. Many thanks and I love the BOOMs:)

i think at 16:46 we should use the measure tool and not the dimension tool because it will over constraint the sketch

Useful/helpful, yes, empty space, nope! Since I don't have a printer, I'm just learning 3D modeling from your videos. Today, I added revolute joints, motion linked them (both in Modify menu), and set their rotation ratio to be the inverse of the gear ratio 18:12. The smaller gear rotates 360 degrees to the big gear's [12/18x360] degrees. I checked "reverse" in the motion link window to get the gears to rotate in the proper directions, with respect to one another. I never did get that joining plate sketch fully constrained, though... Tried moving every part of it, and nothing budged, yet the sketch claims to be not fully constrained. Anyways...

Great video learned a ton

My gears are automatically placed flat on the yz plane instead of the xy plane. I changed my preferences > Default Modeling Orientation to Z-Up, but it still places them on the yz plane.

add ins option isnt there on my workspace

thanks for the help

Hello Paul, Your: "......or die trying...." was a life saver for me (pun intended). To be absolutely perfect, you should add a lesson on file management. I lost a few work in process because of the quirky way Fusion 360 saves files. Is there a way to set up preferences so that all files are saved simultaneously in the cloud and in a local drive? Also, you may want to explain the file formats in which 3D models and 2D sketches can be saved (SLT, DFX, etc) I use Fusion 360 also for pure 2D sketching for Laser Cutting acrylic plates. and I'd like to know whether there is a way to save a DXF file without the construction lines. This would be great when you then upload it in Corel Draw which is normally the software connected to the Laser Cutter and cannot differentiate real from construction lines. BTW If you have already addressed these issue, please send me the links where to find the videos. Great job anyway Roberto

Thank you, this was a useful lesson.

BOOM! thanks for another great lesson.

Great video.... btw, how do you change a parameter of a gear once it's been created... ie..say you want to reduce if from 18 teeth to 12 teeth, or change the tooth size etc?

The Module system used universally for metric gears makes it trivial to dimension the axle distance between gears. The arithmetic works such that the diameter of the pitch circle is Module x Z (number of teeth) in millimeters. Thus say a module 4 gear of 12 teeth would have a pitch circle diameter 4 x 12 = 48mm. Recalling that the pitch circle is the effective "toothless wheel" i.e. a wheel of that diameter would work like the gear, two above gears would mesh perfectly with axes 48mm apart (radius + radius). No measurement or eyeballing involved.

Awesome! Didn't know Fusion 360 has extensions :))

Thank you very much! :)

Dear Paul, it may be a little late (4 years from the release of your videos…) but I only recently began to “play” with Fusion360 and find your videos very, very useful! I noticed that the current version of the program is different in some aspects, but most of the time I manage to find how things seem to work in my version, One problem I cant solve though is in ‘lesson 9’ : I can’t find a way to move the helical gear from the origin. I tried to copy all your ‘moves’ but the thing stays were it is. Have a printed model now, as I used separate drawings for each of the gears and the base, but that is obviously not how it is supposed to go. Any help is appreciated! Thank you! Huib Berger ( the Netherlands)

I think those rings would be better on base than on gears

Boom, getting the hang of this slowly.

The first gear moves, as expected. For the second gear, the line (containing the point to which I would like to move the gear) is not visible. Help please...

Another great video! No, you aren't talking too much - just enough, and I can keep up better this way.

What is the formula for the distancing of two gears?

Fantastic series, thank you. In Lesson 9, when I create the second (left) helical gear, it comes out hollow. I cannot figure it out.

Hello Paul and thanks for your great lessons on Fusion 360. I am learning a lot. Just a comment, would you be using the Radial system for designing gears the pitch diameter, (or the diameter where the gear should be contacting the other one) could easily be calculated by multiplying the modulus times the number of teeth. So a gear with modulus 3 and 12 teeth has a 36mm pitch diameter! I think this would be easier for you and more accurate when calculating distance between gears centers.

Hi Paul, Pls do video on assembly

hello paul, wonderful experience this lesson. I wanted to know if I can have the gears printed by a company that does this for a living. At the moment I am learning and I have not taken the license of fusion 360. I have noticed that there is the command: Export. A file with the extension: f3d is saved. Does this file contain everything I need for my design to be printed?

I have not yet bought a 3dprinter. Learning som fusion first. But have installed the meshmixer to get a prewiev. I can only select one object to send to printer. Is it me doing something wrong or is it because i am using hobby-ist free fusion ?

Thanks for instructions, very helpful! How can we change diameter of Helical gears add from App Store?

I could not figure out why the default position of my gear is in vertical position when the gear in this tutorial is in horizontal. Can someone please help me out?

So, whom ever knows about gears please explain to me, (in as minimal mathematical terms), how to figure the amount of teeth needed in order to mesh the gears. In this video the big gear is set to 18 teeth, the small one 12. Thanks.

thank you again Sir

Would it be easier to use "Create Hole" tool?

I had trouble placing the gears on the base and getting the gear teeth to mesh.