Parts library

Create › Parts. Click a face to mount the part there, or press Enter to drop it on the bed. Every parameter stays editable in the inspector.

Gears

• Gear: involute spur gear; set Helix ∠ for a helical gear and tick Herringbone for a herringbone. Module, teeth, pressure angle, thickness, bore and clearance.
• Add mate: places a second gear that meshes with this one, at the right centre distance and with the teeth lined up (and the opposite helix).
• Bevel gear: cone-shaped teeth for a 90° drive. Equal tooth counts make a 45° miter pair. Add mate puts the partner at 90° with the cone tips meeting.
• Ring gear (internal teeth) and rack (straight toothed bar).

Two 45° helical gears on crossed shafts also turn a drive 90°, but bevel gears are stronger for a robot joint.

Frisbee

The dog disc: 210 mm, rim leaning 36.9° so it prints open side up without support, chamfered rim, filleted inner corner. The inspector warns if the rim goes past 45°. Print in TPU (FLEX MEDIUM): hot, slow, little cooling.

Drives (assemblies)

• Planetary gearset: sun, ring and planets as separate parts. Warns when the tooth counts can't be assembled or the planets would hit each other.
• Cycloidal drive: housing with pins, cycloid disc, eccentric cam and output plate with pins. Ratio = pins − 1 (default 20:1). The disc's centre hole fits a 608 bearing.

Not modelled yet: the planet carrier and the cycloidal output support bearing.

Bolts, threaded rods and nuts

Parts › Bolt / threaded rod and Nut (threaded): real ISO metric threads (coarse pitch), M2 to M24, or any diameter and pitch you type. Pick a Size and the diameter, pitch and nut size follow.

• Head: hex, socket (a hex-key pocket) or none, which makes a threaded rod chamfered at both ends. A bolt stands head down on the bed, the way it prints best.
• Clearance is taken off every flank of a bolt and added to every flank of a nut or threaded hole, so a printed bolt in a printed nut has twice it between them. Small sizes start with less (their threads are shallow); the panel warns when the gap is more than half the thread depth.
• Left-hand for threads that tighten the other way.
• Threads print best upright with fine layers; M4 and bigger work well, M2–M3 barely. For a threaded hole in a part, use Features › Threaded hole.

Hinges

Parts › Hinge. Two leaves on a row of knuckles, built lying open flat (180°). Each leaf is its own part in a group, so you can see and fuse them separately.

Type

• Print-in-place: leaf A has a pin that runs through leaf B's knuckles with a gap all round (Gap, 0.3 mm for the TAZ 5). It prints already assembled; nothing to put together. Keep the gap at 0.2 mm or more or it fuses shut.
• Pin: every knuckle has a hole for an axle. Switching to Pin sets the hole to 3.2 mm, for an M3 screw with a nyloc nut (tighten it for a stiffer hinge). For a rod or a length of filament, set Axle hole Ø to the rod plus 0.2 mm. The leaves print separately.

Settings: length, knuckles (an odd number, so leaf A has both ends), knuckle Ø, pin Ø, gap, leaf width and thickness, and for each leaf screw holes: countersunk M2 to M5 (head side up), how many per leaf, or none. The panel warns when a knuckle is too narrow, the pin leaves less than 1 mm of wall, or a leaf is too narrow for its screws.

Mounting it

Each leaf can be screwed on or fused to a part. Move the hinge into place first: drag the arrows, rotate it, or use Line up.

• Screwed on: keep the leaf's screw holes. The bill of materials lists the screws.
• Fused to a part: select the hinge. Under Mounting, press Fuse to a part… next to the leaf, then click the part. The part and the leaf become one solid, and that leaf's screw holes go. The part now lives in the hinge group (named e.g. "Lid + leaf A"). It stays fused if you change the hinge afterwards.

So a box with a lid: fuse leaf A to the lid and leaf B to the box for a one-piece print-in-place box. Or fuse one leaf to a cover and screw the other leaf to a wall.

Printing

A print-in-place hinge, and everything fused to it, must print as it sits. Its group has Print together, as placed ticked, so Export › Print plate and Selected part / group keep it in one piece instead of laying the leaves out apart. A pin hinge has it off, so its leaves lie flat side by side. You can tick it for any group that has to print assembled.

Circuit boards

Electronics in the toolbar. A board to fit into a case or onto a bracket: the PCB on its standoffs, with its real outline and mounting holes. Pick one from the menu (change it later under Board):

Click a face to put it there (its standoffs stand on the face), or press Enter to drop it on the bed. Standoff h and Standoff Ø set the standoffs. Parts above and Pins below are how much room the board needs; tick Parts room to show that room as solid, so anything that touches it collides. Component heights are estimates: measure your own board.

Screwing it down

Right-click the board › Screw it to the part below. From each mounting hole it looks straight down for the part under it, and cuts there:

• Heat-set insert holes: a blind hole for an insert under each hole, for metal standoffs.
• Printed standoffs: standoffs grown out of the part up to the board, each with an insert hole in the top.
• Through holes: clearance holes right through, for a screw and nut.

The holes are ordinary edits on that part: click one to move or resize it. The board stays where it is for checking the fit: hide it before you print or export.

Bill of materials

Select a group to see:

• Printed: each part with its volume, and the total. Material and filament weight come from OrcaSlicer, since they depend on the material, infill and walls you choose there.
• Hardware: what the parameters call for, e.g. a 608 bearing for a 22 mm bore on an 8 mm cam, a NEMA 17 for a 5.2 mm shaft hole, dowel pins for planets. Bearing seats you add show up here too. Items in orange are warnings.