Design cylindrical cams

Insert cylindrical cams

  1. On the ribbon, click Design tab Power Transmission panel Cylindrical Cam .
  2. On the Design tab:
    • On the Cam group box, select the Component option from the pull-down list. Cylindrical Face and Start Plane commands are activated. If you select No model option, only calculation is inserted to the assembly. In such case, the Cylindrical Face and Start Plane commands are disabled.
    • Within the assembly, select the cylindrical face and start plane to specify the placement of the component. Cylindrical Face and Start Plane commands are enabled by default.
    • Enter values of the basic radius and cam width.
    • You can click Preview... to display the preview of the cylindrical cam.
    • On the Follower group box, enter the values of the roller radius and eccentricity angle. Eccentricity angle represents the angle between follower motion direction and cam axis.
    • On the Actual Segment group box, select the actual segment, or select one by clicking in the graph area, and then enter graph values.
      Note: Click Add After, Delete, or Add Before to add or remove segments.
    • Select the type of motion from the pull-down list. You can add your own motion when you click Plus (Add) and specify name and values of the motion in the Add Motion dialog box. The new motion is added to the list of motions. To remove any motion from the list, click Minus (Delete).
  3. (Optional) Click More in the right lower corner of the Design tab to set additional options for cam design.
  4. (Optional) Click Save to file above the graph area to save graph data to the text file.
  5. (Optional) Click Results in the upper-right corner of the Design or Calculation tab to open HTML report.
  6. Click OK.
Note: You can switch to the Calculation tab to perform a calculation and strength check. Calculation is performed when you click Calculate.

Insert a calculation

  1. On the ribbon, click Design tab Power Transmission panel Cylindrical Cam .
  2. On the Design tab:
    • On the Cam area, select the No Model option from the pull-down list, and enter values of the basic radius and cam width.
    • On the Follower area, enter the values of the follower.
    • On the Actual Segment area, select the actual segment, or select 1 by clicking in the graph area, and then entering graph values.
      Note: Click Add After, Delete or Add Before to add or remove segments.
    • Select the type of motion using the pull-down list. You can add your own motion when you click Plus (Add) and specify name and values of you motion in the Add Motion dialog box. The new motion is then added to the list of motions. To remove any motion from the list, click Minus (Delete).
  3. (Optional) Click More in the right lower corner of the Design tab to set additional options for cam design.
  4. Click OK.
Note: You can switch to the Calculation tab to perform a calculation and strength check. Calculation is performed when you click Calculate.

Calculate cylindrical cams
  1. On the ribbon, click Design tab Power Transmission panel Cylindrical Cam .
  2. On the Design tab:
    • On the Cam area, select what type of cam you want to insert (Component, No Model).
    • Insert values for cam and follower and cam segments.
  3. Switch to the Calculation tab:
    • Enter the calculation values. You can change the values and units directly in the edit fields.
  4. Click Calculate to perform the calculation.
  5. Calculation results are displayed in the Results area. The inputs that fail the calculation are displayed in red (their value does not correspond with other inserted values or calculation criteria). Reports of the calculation are displayed in the Summary of Messages area which is displayed after clicking on the chevron in the right lower part of the Calculation tab.
  6. (Optional) Click Save to file in the Design tab above the graph area to save graph data to the text file.
  7. (Optional) Click Results in the upper-right corner to open the HTML report.
  8. If calculation indicates design compliance, click OK.

Edit cylindrical cams
  1. Open the Autodesk Inventor assembly with the already inserted Design Accelerator cylindrical cam.
  2. Select the cylindrical cam, right-click to display the context menu and select the Edit Using Design Accelerator command.
  3. Edit the cam. You can change the type of cam (Component, No Model) or recalculate values. If you changed calculation values, click Calculate to see the strength check and geometric calculation. Calculation results are displayed in the Results area. The inputs that fail the calculation are displayed in red (their value does not correspond with other inserted values or calculation criteria). Reports of the calculation are displayed in the Summary of Messages area which is displayed after clicking on the chevron in the right lower part of the Calculation tab.
  4. Click OK.

Cam Tutorial

Parent topic: Cam Component Generators