STEP File Export Approximate Gears?

[Elkniwt]

Gears don't export to STEP files. I can understand that, since they're elaborate meshes, and the file format likely doesn't support such. But could there be a checkbox to allow exporting gears to STEP files as approximations via squat cylinders? Or (really fancy) tapered cylinders for bevel gears?

It also seems like, when exporting a group to a STEP, it exports the individual objects as their original colors, rather than the color of the group.

[henmedia]

@Elkniwt thanks for both points.

Gears: most gears already go into a STEP file as exact bodies, with real faces, not as a mesh: spur, bevel, ring (internal) gears and racks with any tooth shape, and helical and herringbone gears with involute or simple teeth. Only helical and herringbone gears with round teeth, and an oval helical gear, stay a mesh, and the export skips those. Which gear did you export, and what did the message after the export say? If it was a gear that should work, please send a bug report (Help → Bug report) right after the export, then I can see what went wrong.

Group colour: you are right, that was a bug. A group that shows one colour now gives that colour to all its parts in the STEP file; a group with Multicolor on keeps each part's own colour, as you see it in the editor. This comes with the next version.

[henmedia]

@Elkniwt the STEP export now gives a group's colour to all its parts, in layerling 1.142.0. With Multicolor on, each part keeps its own colour, as in the editor.