3D Tutorial 08: Modeling the Automotive Differential in Blender

The automotive differential is an ingenious mechanism which enables the two driven wheels of a car to operate at different speeds when the driving conditions call for it, such as during a turn. All automobiles employ various types of differentials.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to design the most basic kind, the open differential, in Blender. The workhorse of a differential mechanism is a bevel gear. Modeling a bevel gear drive is described in detail in Tutorial #3. We have recently enhanced the Bevel Gear Calculator, used by both tutorials, with a Python script generator which greatly simplifies the design of a bevel gear pair.

This tutorial will also show you how to test the differential mechanism in both the straight-motion and turning modes of operation using Blender's Rigid Body Physics engine.

The end result of this tutorial, a .blend file containing a functional automotive differential mechanism, can be downloaded via the link below.

a class="relatedlink" href="bevel.html">Bevel Gear Calculator