The cam calculation feature is used to design cam profiles for linear, circular, or cylindrical cams.
You can select to use a translating or swinging follower, an open- or closed-track for the cam-follower mechanism.
Depending on the type of cam-follower you selected, you then define the displacement diagram for the follower. And based on the displacement diagram, velocity and acceleration diagrams are generated. At this stage, the cam calculation feature creates and inserts the first draft of the cam profile in the drawing.
You use the first draft of the cam profile to calculate strengths of the cam-follower mechanism. Strengths are the external forces acting on the cam-follower, forces due to friction between the arm of the follower and the follower guide bushing, forces of any spring used to fix the follower-roller to the cam periphery, and characteristics of the materials used for roller and cam.
In the next stage of the cam design and calculation process, you can view the result of calculation. You can then go back to any stage in the design process to change data or select another type of cam-follower mechanism. You can also optimize the cam profile by selecting a new cam center or a new start point for the cam-follower movement. When you finish editing your cam-follower mechanism, the result of the cam design and calculation are inserted in the drawing.
Finally, you can generate NC data from the cam profile you created. You can save this data to a DXF or TXT file.