Product Overview

Wilcox Associates, Inc. is proud to bring you PC-DMIS™ Gear 2.2. PC-DMIS Gear is a completely independent software package that, through automation, uses PC-DMIS 4.2 or higher to measure External Spur, Helical, Internal Spur and Bevel gears. The new PC-DMIS Gear design in 2.1 and higher has been improved for simplicity to give you a straight-forward measurement experience.

PC-DMIS Gear combines the capability that was previously accomplished using two separate applications: PC-DMIS Gear (external and internal spur, helical gears) and Spiral Bevel Gear (bevel gears). In building PC-DMIS Gear, Wilcox Associates combined the core capabilities of PC-DMIS with the advanced gear measurement algorithms of QUINDOS.

A wide range of international standards are supported. Users can easily switch among various international standards for evaluating gears. Built into PC-DMIS Gear is support for the following:

• AGMA 2000-A88
• DIN 3962
• JIS B 1702
• ISO 1328

PC-DMIS Gear is an extremely competitive alternative to dedicated gear measurement equipment.  Dedicated gear measurement machines are expensive, and in all but the most demanding circumstances, an investment in them can be overkill.  PC-DMIS Gear offers the manufacturers of gears an attractive alternative. Its combination of ease of use, coupled with advanced technology, works well in a wide range of applications.

PC-DMIS Gear makes it easy for users to build inspection programs, define gear parameters, measure the defined gear, and generate and analyze reports.

System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

• Windows XP 32-bit. Note that this version will NOT function on computers using any other operating system.
• Pentium IV or higher processor is suggested.
• 1 GHz or higher Intel processor.
• 512 MB of RAM (but significantly more may be required if working with large CAD models).
• 750 MB of free hard drive space minimum for the application.
• SVGA graphics card capable of OpenGL shading. (We cannot specify the exact Graphics card because every user has varying needs). Note that Nvidia GeForce video cards are not recommended. These are defined as "gaming" cards according to Nvidia Engineering.
• SVGA capable monitor
• Screen resolution of 1280 x 1024 or higher.
• CD-ROM drive.
• USB Port

Recommended Minimums:

• Windows XP 32-bit. Note that that this version will NOT function on computers using any other operating system.
• 2 GHz or higher Intel processor for improved performance. Pentium 4 or higher processor recommended.
• 1 GB of RAM or higher. More RAM may be required if working with large CAD models. You should have RAM equal to 8 times the size of your largest CAD file. (For example, if you use an IGES model of 250 MB, then 2 GB RAM is recommended)
• 1.25 GB of free hard drive space plus enough for allocated Virtual Memory equal to 8 times the largest CAD file used.
• SVGA graphics card that supports OpenGL shading and that has WHQL (Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Labs) certified drivers. These drivers can be downloaded automatically when using the Windows Update software.). On board video card memory should be based on the size of your largest CAD file. For small CAD files (less than 50 MB), 32 MB video memory. For medium CAD files (50-100 MB), 64 MB video memory. For large CAD files (> 100 MB), 128+ MB video memory.
• SVGA capable monitor
• Screen resolution of 1280 x 1024 or higher
• CD-ROM drive.
• USB Port

Basic Gear Features

PC-DMIS Gear 2.1 and higher provide the following capabilities:

• Qualifying Probes and Aligning Gears
• Defining a Gear
• Measuring a Gear
• Analyzing Gear Data

Qualifying Probes and Aligning Gears

PC-DMIS Gear reduces the complexity of probe qualification and part alignment.

The process of probe qualification launches the PC-DMIS Probe Utilities dialog box. This common PC-DMIS tool allows you to quickly create and qualify probes for gear measurement.

Creating a gear alignment is done by means of three alignment routines:

• External Spur and Helical Gear
• Internal Spur Gear
• External Gear With Shaft

You can use an existing PC-DMIS part program to create the alignment, or you can create a custom alignment.

Multiple tips can be used to measure various components of the gear alignments. Parameters to adjust machine movements can also be adjusted as needed.

Depending on the alignment routine, DCC feature (plane, circle, and cylinder) values can be specified to determine how these alignment features are measured.

When creating a bevel gear alignment, you can specify the feature types to which the Z axis and the XYZ origin will be aligned. Additional parameters allow you to define the measurement of the face or root cone for a bevel gear.

Alignment measurement is done by means of an alignment wizard, which guides you through each step of measurement.

Back to Features

Defining a Gear

Gear parameters allow you to fully define the theoretical values to which your gear will be measured and compared. A full array of options are available depending on your gear standard and the gear type you are measuring.

Parameters for your gear include:

• Pitch/Runout
• Profile
• Helix/Lead
• Tip/Root
• Pitch (bevel gears)
• Topography (bevel gears)

Back to Features

Measuring a Gear

PC-DMIS Gear automatically creates a part program to measure your gear as defined. Measuring a gear can be done by scanning with an analog probe or by taking hits with a touch trigger probe.

Measuring bevel gears includes the capability to measure a Master Flank. This provides an average form for all of the measured flanks of a bevel gear.

A measurement wizard guides you through the steps to measure the defined gear. A part program for gear measurement is automatically created and executed by PC-DMIS.

A Data Viewer allows you to review and export measured data.

Back to Features

Analyzing Gear Data

Measurement results are displayed graphically using Quindos PageViewer. Below are some sample measurement results:

Spur and Helical Gear Examples

• Pitch Runout
• Profile Helix

Bevel Gear Examples

• Pitch Runout
• Topography

Back to Features

New Features and Enhancements

The following are the new enhancements available in PC-DMIS Gear 2.2:

• Added ability to evaluate "Span Over Teeth (Wk)" for checking tooth thickness/Space. (Enhancement #505174, Enhancement #505055, Enhancement #504601)
• Added a menu item, "Recent Files", in File menu to make it easy to open the recently opened files.
• Added ability to Calculate and fill automatically the default value for pitch/runout, profile and lead measurement. (Enhancement #504887)
• Added capability of exporting a master flank data file (Gleason format) from a Bevel Gear file. (Enhancement #505139)
• Added capability of exporting and importing a mes file (measurement data file). (Enhancement #504667)
• Added auto-save functionality to automatically save measured data to a mes file.
• Added the ability to define profile or lead scanning with total point numbers instead of points density. (Enhancement #505371)
• Added the ability to plot adjacent pitch error (Fu) curve in the report. (Enhancement #505401)
• Added functionality to import an initial alignment when aligning a gear.
• Added independent prehit/retract distance setting for clocking points measurement when aligning gear.
• Added functionality to evaluate "Cumculative K Teeth Pitch Error".
• Added K-Chart analysis overlay. (Enhancement #504821, Enhancement #504376)
• Added capability to print the gear report to both PDF and Printer automatically at the end of execution. (Enhancement #504995)
• Provided a more friendly user interface to make it easy for those with low-resolution monitors.
• Employed the latest available plot server to allow better interaction with PDF files.

Updates and Fixes

PC-DMIS Gear 2.2 contains these problem report fixes:

• 258626 - When I entered a scan density of 0.1 points/mm, I get an unhandled exception error.
• 258621 - The clearplan cannot be defined using minus.
• 258506 - It says "The alignment is created successfully" even if I cancel aligning the spur gear.
• 258424 - Unbelievable result in case of number of tooth are 6.
• 258423 - The probe directions, or measuring squences are not correct.
• 258407 - Vpsi is evaluated too big when measuring a corwn gear.
• 258406 - When we align gear with "align with shaft", the muiltiple tips for manual cylinder option and Clearance height don't work properly.
• 258400 - The measurement date and time is not updated when I open an existing pp to execute in Gear.
• 258346 - There are some issues when you set BoundaryType Sphere.
• 258312 - Lower and upper tolerance of Crown is output incorrectly in report.
• 258311 - Profile angle error fHA is calculated incorrectly in report.
• 258291 - The Part program name field does not distinguish between alignments and measurements file names.
• 258290 - AGMA tolerance does not come out.
• 258280 - The report drawing is not right.
• 258153 - The parameters defined in scan setting doesn't match up to the parameters in scan command generated by Gear.
• 258069 - When I try to analyze Lead on this gear, the graphics show nothing.
• 259053 - When an old gear file (created by Gear v1.8) is imported into Gear v2.1, the measured data are not imported properly.
• 259099 - Rename ReleaseNote.txt to Readme.txt.
• 259116 - The Gear dialog buttons are different than earlier versions fo Gear, and also different than typical PC-DMIS buttons.
• 259118 - The probe lifts to the clearance plane between EVERY measurement on this internal gear.
• 259146 - The Gear appllication thinks changes have been made when this is not the case.
• 259753 - The Spiral Bevel Gear program dos not load the proper tool.
• 259759 - When I try to use an existing program, there is no clear indication of which characteristic will be measured.
• 259761 - When I close out of the Gear application, it still leaves PC-DMIS running in the task manager.
• 259745 - ANALYZE in the toolbar icon, and in the menu,in some of the more updated dialogs it is now called EVALUATE
• 259699 - I cannot take the manual clocking points on the Spiral Bevel Gear alignment.
• 259672 - When I try to use a different probe for profile and lead, I get an application error.
• 259700 - Quality number of Vpsi is not evaluate and printed out properly in report when AGMA standard is selected.
• 259643 - When I specificy alignment measurement between 0 - 180 degrees, it uses significantly less than that.
• 259638 - When I try to measure with an existing program, the Create button si disabled because I've not entered an alignment.
• 259642 - After Measurement, there is no longer a dialog to indicate that it was successful.
• 259339 - When I try to access the Scan Settings from the Measure dialog, there seems to be a problem in the display area.
• 259338 - The wrist does not turn to the correct angle prior to starting gear measurement.
• 259118 - The probe lifts to the clearance plane between EVERY measurement on this internal gear.
• 259051 - Cannot Open .gear file created in Pc-dmis Gear V1.8 in Pc-dmis Gear V2.1 - Receive an error message stating "Unrecognized database format".
• 259804 - The probe always rotates to A0B0 to measure the pinion clocking tooth.
• 259812 - I cannot properly align this pinion gear.
• 258952 - The CANCEL button in the Gear execution dialog does not cancel anything.
• 259339 - When I try to access the Scan Settings from the Measure dialogthere seems to be a problem in the display area.
• 259814 - When I try to measure with an existing gear program, I get an unhandled exception error.
• 260096 - After initial alignment of this gear, the messagebox is hidden.
• 260105 - When I try to analyze Dimension Over balls on this gear, I get an unhandled exception error.
• 259735 - while installation an error come up with modgearhxfile.dll registration error
• 259928 - When I uncheck the Measure box, the application still tries to measure my gear.
• 260129 - Why does this probe rotate to A45B90 at the start of every gear alignment program.
• 260194 - The second startup of Gear will make Gear crash.
• 260093 - I get an unhandled exception error when viewing successive dialogs in the Gear application.
• 260102 - After I take the bevel manual points and press Done, I get an application error.
• 259893 - Although I specified A45, the application used the tip's A0B0 angle to measure all of the pitch points.
• 260130 - The probe does not rotate to the selected angle to measure the clocking teeth on this bevel gear.
• 260219 - When I take two manual hits on the same flank, the window will not close properly.
• 260225 - The wrist does not rotate to measure the spur gear pitch.
• 260280 - When I try to align the pinion gear, I get an application error.
• 259745 - The teminology is inconsistent.
• 260459 - The Auto Analyze function of the Measure dialog does nothing.
• 259886 - After clearaing an error, the execute dialog is still red.
• 259699 - I cannot take the manual clocking points on the Spiral Bevel Gear alignment.
• 259883 - When I cancel out of a Gear measurement, I get an unhandled exception error.
• 260665 - When I try to start Gear, it fails with an error about not finding MTWzMathUtil.dll
• 260676 - When I run the latest gear application (Gear22b_090320C.zip), I get an error message on the screen
• 260777 - The application is using the wrong wrist angle for the profile and lead measurement on this gear.
• 260798 - Why is the "span over teeth" dimension so big? Its 1,000,000 mm!
• 260808 - The analog lead scan does not stop, but instead triues to scan over the top of the tooth, down the other side, and off the gear.
• 260912 - Select recentlt opened file in File manu will not make MEASURE button enabled in toolbar.
• 260806 - The gear measurement stops with no indication of errors or trouble.
• 260913 - When I selct "Use alternate proble fofr profile and helix scanning", probe keep totating when it try to measure profile and helix even if I don't need to measure some teeth.
• 260991 - Bad output in report when evaluating an incomplete gear.
• 260283 - After successfully measuring the pinion gear, a 2nd attempt results in a hang and then application error.
• 260762 - Error massage during installation.
• 261071 - Gear crashes when it starts new plot server.
• 260587 - When I try to align this gear, the probe rotates to A45B0 instead of A0B0.
• 260925 - When I try to start the gear measurement, it wants to use the A105 wrist angle.
• 261012 - When I get an error message, the dialog remains green in color, not red as with other times.
• 260843 - Why are all of the Measure fields enabled when I am using an existing (Spur gear) file?
• 260979 - When I try to start the Bevel Gear alignment, it does not switch to the correct probe (from the rack).
• 260980 - Why does the system try to use the A105 wrist angle at the start of the Spiral Bevel Gear measurement?
• 261098 - The Spiral Bevel Gear Alignment dialog has no option to run an existing program.