PowerGear Versions,

PowerGear v4.0.64, Uploaded 12/23/12. The manufacturing page had an error, the roll angle for the operating and manufacturing pitch diameter were reported as the pressure angle. The operating center distance is now also output in the manufacturing pages and in the output string the tip dimension is now labeled as the minimum, it always was but now it's stated. Thanks to Allan Geyer, for finding these bugs and recommending these additions.

PowerGear v4.0.63, Uploaded 03/22/12. This version released because it fixes some installation issues on Win7-64. The RTAN is passed back from the drawing routines to the main calculator and used to calc TIFC. The quality number in the MFG page still reflects the old style, while on the AGMA page it is the 'new' way.

PowerGear v4.0.60, Uploaded Friday 01/13/12

PowerGear v4.0.32 & DrawGear v2.0.20 uploaded 1/24/10, reactivated as the main download 7/16/11: This is a punt, falling back to earlier version because new version causing trouble. Specifically, Win7-64 has "issues" with latest version and this is last version known to work on all Windows platforms. This version has a known issue with the RTAN (Radius where the involute meets the trochoid, or root, and the TIFC, the True Involute Form Clearance, how much clearance there is between the tip of the tooth and the RTAN of the mating gear. Drawgear gets this right and you can import the drawing into your favorite DXF CAD software to measure the RTAN.

PowerGear v4.0.54 & DrawGear v2.0.28 uploaded 6/6/11: An update of Windows radically enforced the null termination of registry strings (my best guess) forcing the recode-ing of the registry routines. This new version does away with the warehossregistry.dll, a 'plugin' that used to do the registry IO. Since making this registry IO change the behavior of Windows has changed and the previous versions of PG don't exhibit the fault that prompted this re-write, sigh... However, there are other benefits from this upgrade, namely that a bunch of no longer used DLLs and OCXs were removed from the installer, this may make it non-workable on Win95 & 98 & 2000, I don't know, I don't have test platforms for this, please let me know if so. I will leave the 4.0.36 available for this reason. One other change herein is that previously a gear must have been defined with the pitch radius in between the tip and root radii, now a check is done and the program works it out. (These changes for Bucyrus)

PowerGear v4.0.36 & DrawGear v2.0.28 uploaded 2/21/11: There was an issue with the license, which is now fixed. There was a problem with the installer and components not being compatible with Windows 7. This is fixed as of 3/4/2011, the installer has been tested and verified on Window XP & 7, it has been tested on Vista but doesn't work there.

PowerGear v4.0.35 & DrawGear v2.0.26 uploaded 1/20/11: Resurrected the TIFC and RTan. RTAN was defaulted to 1 and consequently the TIFC was wrong. Added a feature to DrawGear so that when the file is communicated to it from PowerGear the filename from PG is brought along. This enables a quick naming of the DXF to the same as the PG file, first name your PG file before clicking "Draw". Open the DXF vector file in your favorite 2D CAD viewer.

Support for Windows 7! (if it doesn't work out of the gate then go to the executable, by default installed in C:\program files\PowerGear\, and right click on it and go to "Troubleshoot Compatibility", then select "Troubleshoot program", then select "Program worked in earlier versions of Windows..." then select "Windows XP (SP3), then click through and that's it. Do this for both executables.)

PowerGear v4.0.32 & DrawGear v2.0.20 uploaded 1/24/10: Added output formatting that has no stray or additional commas so that pasting the copy buffer into a text file makes a good columnar CSV file, hence imports to Excel are easier and better. Added a range extender to the through hardened materials table so that the AGMA values are extrapolated outward. A notice when the 'normal' limits are exceeded is given.

PowerGear v4.0.28 & DrawGear v2.0.20 uploaded 12/03/09: Added Deflections!!! and fixed little miscellaneous things that creep into Visual Basic interpreter.

PowerGear v3.0.73 & DrawGear v2.0.20 uploaded 03/30/09: Fixed a problem with the sequence of events dealing with the completely reversing checkbox in the AGMA materials screen The bending stress was not correctly calculated if the hardness was changed and the completely reversing check box was checked. Thanks to Adam Truckey for pointing this out.

PowerGear v3.0.72 & DrawGear v2.0.20 uploaded 03/22/09: Fixed a problem with the loading of files and calculating the hours relative to cycles in the AGMA screen. Added a new feature: The output string is comma delimited and copied to the copy buffer. You can paste it to a text file and save it as a *.csv file (Comma Seperated Variable) and then Excel can open it and parse it correctly (mostly). Also put the name of the current file in the main window caption.

PowerGear v3.0.68 & DrawGear v2.0.17 uploaded 09/29/05: SAC, the Stress Allowable Contact, or, Allowable Stress Contact in the output string was not converted to metric units but now is. The units have also been changed to MPa from kPa. In Drawgear the GUI has been amended to include response if the enter key is pressed, only in run-alone mode.

PowerGear v3.0.66 & DrawGear v2.0.16 uploaded 04/06/04: TIFC True Involute Form Clearance is the distance between the lowest point of contact and the tangency point of the involute curve and the fillet. This is not expressed in diameter or radius so this option was removed, it was also renamed from TIFF, which is spurious, to TIFC. The help file contained links to our lost (stolen) URL, geardoc.com, those are now replaced with gear-doc.com links.

PowerGear v3.0.64 & DrawGear v2.0.16 uploaded 03/29/04: Some GUI modifications.

PowerGear v3.0.63 & DrawGear v2.0.16 uploaded 01/25/04: This version fixes the TIFF, (True Involute Form Factor clearance). It was negative in the case of an internal gear indicating that there was interferance if in fact there was clearance between highest point of the external gear and the lowest point of the internal gear.

PowerGear v3.0.62 & DrawGear v2.0.16 uploaded 12/04/03: Some minor changes to the PowerGear GUI. Fixes font size issues with clipping if using large fonts.

PowerGear v3.0.59 & DrawGear v2.0.16 uploaded 01/19/03: Some minor changes to PowerGear and the help files. This installer uses older DLLs and is more compatible with win95 - win2k.

PowerGear v3.0.58 & DrawGear v2.0.16 uploaded 01/03/03: Some cosmetic changes to PowerGear and some DLL substitutions in the installer. There have been some installation issues that this installer is to resolve.

PowerGear v3.0.56 & DrawGear v2.0.16 uploaded 09/18/02:
Changes to PowerGear include:

  • The Yn and Zn cycles from the AGMA routine are now communicated to the output string. Comma delimited variables for large numbers are no longer used.
  • TIFF (True Involute Form Factor) is calculated and output to the output string. This is the clearance between the lowest point of contact and the lowest point of true involute curve (R_LC – Rtan).
  • The font size and type in the output window are now remember in the registry.
  • The menus and button bar can be completely suppressed in the output window by right clicking in the window somewhere (not on grid or button bar) This state also remembered
    Changes to DrawGear include:
  • File save and open. Very simple routine, there are no checks for overwriting a file or whether the file exists, nor does it remember directories etc. (file save and open only available when DrawGear is run as stand-alone)
    Notes about PowerGear and DrawGear.
  • DXF file output from DrawGear extensively checked with respect to PowerGear. The DXF file matches the output string of PowerGear with the exception of the “Rtan” (the tangency radius or the lowest point of the involute curve). DrawGear and PowerGear use different methods to calculate the tangency radius.

    PowerGear v3.0.51 & DrawGear v2.0.3 uploaded 01/17/2002. The umbrella organization under which PowerGear was developed, Eversolv, Inc. is no longer involved with PowerGear. This version removes references to Eversolv and fixes an issue with tooth tip and root definitions. An issue occured when the tooth tip was below the standard pitch circle. This is now fixed.

    PowerGear v3.0.48 & DrawGear v2.0.3 uploaded 08/20/2001. There was a bug in the communication from PowerGear to DrawGear. The problem was that the backlash was not communicated. This is now fixed.

    PowerGear v3.0.47 & DrawGear v2.0.3 uploaded 07/25/2001: There was a bug in DrawGear. The problem was that the addendum of a tool was reduced by the amount of the tip radius. This is now fixed.

    PowerGear v3.0.44 & DrawGear v2.0.0 uploaded 06/11/2001: The Line Of Action has been added to DrawGear.

    Now visualize the locations of:

  • The lowest point of contact
  • the lowest point of single tooth contact (LPSTC)
  • Highest point of single tooth contact (HPSTC)
  • The highest point of contact.

    A hertzian calculation accompanies the LOA. This calculation only takes into account the radii of curvature and not the Mn or Cpsi load sharing factors of the AGMA's "I" factor so these are not necessarily the same, however the Hertzian factor shown in DrawGear demonstrates the change in contact stress parameters as a function of contact position.

    PowerGear v3.0.42 & DrawGear v1.0.71 Uploaded 05/29/01, An Error was discovered on the printout of the manufacturing outputs page as well as the formatting of the header. These have been fixed. In DrawGear the 'pen' collection in the settings has been troublesome with more refinements in this build #71. Color printing is now also available in DrawGear.

    v3.0.39 (read version 3.0 build 39) Uploaded 05/22/01, Several requests addressed in this update.

  • The tool can now be input actual dimension or normalized (module or diametral pitch = 1)
  • The hours and cycles used to calculate the Yn and Zn factors are now shown in the output string.
  • The horsepower is again limited to three significant figures.
  • The DXF files output now have sufficient header to enable more programs to read them.
  • Drawgear has a few changes in way the settings are displayed.

    v3.0.33 Uploaded 05/07/01: Small changes in this update, the AGMA I factor is now always used, previously Ray Drago's methods were employed, they tended to be more conservative but for the sake of consistency now the AGMA method for calculating the durability factor is always employed. The meters/second pitch line velocity was off by a factor of 12, that is now fixed.

    v3.0.31 Uploaded 03/27/01, The previous versions were packaged in an aggressive install package that overwrote system DLLs. The installer of version 3.0.28 had an errant imm32.dll that corrupted systems. Hopefully this has not caused too much trouble, if so I apologize. This version's installer is 'fairly' un-aggressive and only replaces a system file if the one being replaced has an earlier version#.

    v3.0.28 uploaded 03/16/01, Several changes for this version:

  • 1.) A new printer control is used because some people experienced incompatibilities with the previous one. The new file has to be registered with Windows and the easiest way to do that is to do a complete re- install.
  • 2.) The "Microsoft Common Controls" was duplicated and now the earlier version has been removed. Note that the install is a bit smaller than before and if you want to rid your machine of unused files then you could un-install the previous versions. (The now unused controls are fairly common and other programs you have installed since PowerGear may not run if you un-install)
  • The AGMA routine for calculating the J factor when using hobs, as described in the AGMA908 and the AGMA918 are adopted for this version. This routine is more robust than the original routine. Note how the change is reflected in the *.csv output files. The DST routine for calculating J factor of full root radius gears is still used.
  • Gear tooth thickness can now be expressed in "Addendum Modification Coefficient" for external gearing. This reflects an amount of rackshift proportional to a change in normalized addendum (addendum*PD_n). It does not extend the addendum, it just changes the tooth thickness. Two fields (txtAddendumMod(1&2)) were added to the *.PGD files. A checkbox was added to the options page to suppress the file consistency check. The default is, 'do not check for file consistency', so the nag screen won't pop up unless you check the box in the preferences.
  • Tooth thickness is now also expressed as "Coefficient" in the output stream, this normalized variable reflects how much a standard cutter would have to be shifted to cut the specified thickness and can be used to more easily calculate gear dimensions if given tool dimensions.

    v3.0.0-3.0.27 Beginning with version 3.0.0 DrawGear was introduced. The versions are starting to reflect the compile in the last number. The DrawGear ActiveX executable can run on its own or can be accessed through PowerGear, which uses it to draw the current design. Many versions of DrawGear were quickly released as various bugs were found and fixed. Each time a new version of DrawGear was compiled, a new version of PowerGear had to be compiled because of referencing issues associated with the ActiveX technology, so many of these PowerGear versions only reflect changes in DrawGear.

    v2.0.7 Confusion around the tip-to-flank hob led us to remove that option from the hob screens. Now there is only one style of hob input. When you run the program you may find that the old files have fields in them that are no longer in the program. You must check to see if those inputs pertained to your hob inputs and if so correct the file and re-save the file. All files are repaired upon saving.

    v2.0.6 SAT and SAC in the output string are now only available if you go through the AGMA screen and are directly pulled from the AGMA list. Radius vs Diameter option has been added to the output string, look for the setting under the options window. This version fixes a bug in the inputs where the torque in N-m was not correctly let into the calculator. The tolerancing on the manufacturing page is now presented even if a parameter is out of bounds, if it is, the parameter remains flagged. The tooth thickness code now also appears in the MFG string. On the MFG page of files later than 09/02/00 the pins can be selected from available pins from a combo-box. (pinse.dat & pinsm.dat) Files later than 09/11/00 fixes the printer selection error in which the only printer available is the default printer.

    v2.0.5 Changes the way a hobbed tooth is addressed. In this version first you set the tooth thickness, if you set the hob thickness different than the 'default hob', the generating radius of the hob is shifted (rackshift) to compensate for the difference in the stated tooth thickness and the hob thickness. The root radius follows the rackshift. This more closely emulates the manufacturing process. Added in this version are; the rackshift, minimum fillet radius, the yield strength J factor and the tangency radius where the fillet meets the involute curve.

    v2.0.4 fixes an automatic updating problem with the AGMA screen. The allowable horsepowers were not updated when the "finished" button was pressed. They still are not updated but the program stops there correctly. Also note 3 (three) significant figures in the HP calculations.

    v2.0.3 fixes a number format reading problem in the AGMA calculation. This problem lead to exagerating allowable horsepower if non-integer SAC or SAB numbers were used.