[rogerfries]

I'm pretty new to Alibre, so don't be afraid to insult me by suggesting something that might seem obvious.

I'm starting to design a plasma table using some parts I stripped off a heavy duty plotter. I'm drawing up the rails from the plotter and they have long rack gears on them. I don't need or want to draw the hundreds of the teeth and extrude a cut for them, but I want to do something to show the orientation of the teeth. Can I change the color of just one face, or apply a pattern to the surface of one face to indicate the teeth?

Thanks!

[freeflyer]

Draw 1.5 of a tooth then use linear repeat.

[rogerfries]

I did the linear repeat and it is beautiful, but very slow and choppy now that there are 400+ teeth in it. I think I need a video card in this PC, currently it has integrated graphics

[freeflyer]

Try adjusting the display options in the properties of the drawing. You may get better results by making the drawing a little less sharp.

[rogerfries]

Thanks,

I'll give that a try especially might help my laptop. For the desktop machine I just ordered a video card & some more memory. Should help

[rogerfries]

I installed a new Video card on Monday and WOW what a difference! everything just works so much better in Alibre. I thought it was fine before until this rack gear issue, but now it's so much better. Movements are all animated and smooth! If anyone else is using integrated graphics, I highly recommend getting a video card! I got a Quadro FX380LP $119 from Newegg. This is a relatively low end card, but I needed a Low profile card to fit my case.