Drawing a Spur Gear Profile in AUTOCAD

Stan Beebe
This describes the process by which an involute gear tooth is designed and drawn in
AUTOCAD. A module of 0.2mm is chosen for convenience. Also, a 40 tooth gear will be
chosen for example, the process is similar for the pinion. Figure 1 below shows a few of
the properties of a gear tooth, I apologize for the poor drawing.
Definitions:
P = pitch = 1 / module
N = number of teeth
D = pitch diameter
B = base diameter
A = addendum
Dd = dedendum
C = clearance
f = pressure angle
a = angle between teeth

Figure 1

Determine the pitch diameter:

D = N / P = N * module = 40 * 0.2mm = 8mm
Determine the base diameter:
Choose a pressure angle, typically between 14.5 and 25. A value of 20 will be used for
this example.
B = D * cos(f) = 8mm * cos(20) = 7.5175mm
For convenience of later calculations, the base radius is found to be 3.7588mm.
Determine Addendum and Dedendum:
A = 1.0 / P = module = 0.2mm

Dd = 1.25 / P = 1.25 * module = 0.25mm

Note: the value used for the dedendum above (1.25) can be chosen from various
standards, 1.25 and 1.35 are common.
Determine Clearance:
C = Dd - A = 0.25 - 0.2 = 0.05mm
Determine angle between teeth:
a = 360 / 40 = 9
Since the teeth are on a circular gear the point of contact that allows constant angular
velocity follows an involute path as shown below in Figure 2:

Figure 2
Imagine a string unwrapping from the circle, i.e. the purple line is the radius of the green
arc being and it is equal to the length of the blue arc.

So in this manner, the teeth profiles are drawn. The tricky part is the length of the
involute radius (purple line in Figure 2). However, this is easily remedied by forming a
chart of discrete involute radii for various angles formed by the tangent normal (red
radius line in Fig. 2, about 270 in this instance).
So the length of the purple line is equal to the length of the blue arc. Thus we need only
find the arc lengths for a discrete set of angles described above. The length of the blue arc
is: radius * angle (in radians). About five degree (5*2p / 360 radians) increments seems
to produce adequate resolution, more can be used if desired. Since the teeth are drawn
about the base diameter, the base radius is used for the calculation. A sample is shown
below for the first 5 increment:
Arc length = base radius * 5 * 2p / 360 = 3.7588mm * 0.04363 = 0.1640mm
Continue these calculations for 10,15,20,25, etc. Results are tabulated in Table 1
below.
Angle
(deg)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50

Arc Length
(mm)
0.0000
0.3280
0.6560
0.9841
1.3121
1.6401
1.9681
2.2961
2.6241
2.9522
3.2802

Table 2
All one has to do now is draw these in a CAD program as illustrated below in Figure 3.
For AUTOCAD do the following:
Before starting I like to make a couple layers, in this case Ive added four additional
layers of different colors to make things easier to see.
Draw the base circle, 3.7588mm radius.
Draw a vertical line from the center outward past the circle.
In a new layer, draw a tangent line, in my case to the right, a little more than a radius in
length.
Create polar array of this tangent line about the center of the circle at increments that you
used to calculate the involute radius (5 in my case) and about 10 of them should be
enough (hence the ten 5 calculations shown in Table 2).

So this is what mine looks like after the array of 10 items, 5 between items:

(Exported from AUTOCAD)

Now just make each of the arrayed lines the appropriate length. From the chart we see
that the first line (0 line, horizontal above) is 0.0000mm long. Just delete it. As for the
others, use the lengthen command:
Type lengthen, then t for total, then input the appropriate segment length, i.e. 0.3280
for the second segment. Then click on the segment that you want to alter. Be sure to click
towards the end of the segment you want truncated. Repeat the command for each
consecutive segment. It may be helpful to draw in the addendum circle at this point so
you know when youve truncated enough segments. Youll know youve done enough
when the segment you just truncated stick above the addendum circle. The radius of the
addendum circle is the pitch circle radius plus the addendum, 4.2mm in our case.
It should look like this:

Notice that the last three were not necessary, as they are past the addendum circle.
Now connect the endpoints of the involute radii with a spline curve using default
tangents. I do this in another layer. Pick the intersection of the vertical line and the base
circle as one of the points. It should look something like this:

Now in order to mirror the segment to produce the other side of a tooth, we will need to
know its intersection with the pitch circle in order to determine tooth thickness.
Turn off the layer that contains the involute radii lines for clarity. Draw in the pitch circle
and draw a line from the center to the intersection of the pitch circle and the tooth profile
line (blue line above above). Make a polar array this new line by 1/4th the tooth angle, a,
you only need one, so I choose 2 elements, 2.25 between elements. In order to use
decimal angle values, make sure to set Format> Units> Angle to the proper number of
decimal points. Mirror the tooth profile about this line. It should look like this:

Now, you are nearly complete. Just truncate the tooth at the addendum circle with a
straight line. In order to complete the gear with one array, a complete tooth must the
drawn, we do not have the bottom defined yet. Array the tooth using 2 elements, 9
between elements to make another reference tooth. Draw a straight line between the
bottoms of the profiles. Add fillets to these corners if you wish. I believe you can use half
the clearance (0.025mm) as the fillet radius. Heres what mine looks like:

Now, just delete the unneeded parts and you are one array away from completing your
gear. Mine looks like this:

Now array the remaining 39 teeth and PRESTO, you should have one of these:

All you have to do now is export it as a stereo-lithography file into Pro-Manufacturer,

produce some g-code, clamp some brass into your micro-CNC mill, put in that 0.002
endmill, and cut the sucker out.
If you have any questions about any of this, feel free to email me at
stanbeebe@hotmail.com.