hello!

is there a way to create idents in a round area (circle or sphere) to make it look like a gear?

thanks!

I already know that, but it is not what I asked

btw, what that tool cannot do (I think) is to set the distance between gear teeth to zero, ie each tooth to meet the circle of the gear where the next tooth does so too, is there a way to do this?

1.
2. ctrl-shift-c
3. to draw shape of indents. Align Indent path with stroke of ellipse path in way that pleases you.
4. to create 1x1 px circle. Shift-ctrl-c to convert to path. Align this ellipse in center of larger ellipse path created earlier. Select small ellipse and indent path and do ctrl-K to join together as single path.
5. Edit>Clone>Create Tiled Clones. Select P6: Rotation 60 degrees. Select 1 row x 6 columns. Select Use saved size and position of the tile. Create clones. NOTE: it will be easiest if you align the original indent on a horizontal radius to the left side of the circle.
6. Select clones. Edit>Clone>Unlink clone. Select all the indent paths and do shift-ctrl-k, then select the small ellipse paths (should be six of them) and delete them. Select the six indent paths and do ctrl-K.
7. select indent path created in step 5 and ellipse path created in step 2 and do Path>Difference.

If you want more than 6 teeth you'll have to get creative.


EDIT:
To make the teeth meet, don't you simply need to use the same depth of the indentation? There is no automated way to create gears that magically align perfectly. You will have to do it manually using snapping.