Sets parameters for design of a linear cam.
Click Calculate to perform the calculation of geometric parameters.
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Access: |
Ribbon:
Design tab
Power Transmission panel
Linear Cam
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Cam
General specification of the cam. Use the pull-down menu to select Component or No Model Option.
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Component |
Creates new component. |
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No Model |
Inserts calculation only. |
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Start Plane |
Select the planar face or work plane as a starting reference. Click Flip to flip the orientation of a start plane. |
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Motion Length |
Represents the length of the motion along X axis. You define the follower motion not the cam profile. Linear Cam generator computes cam profile as an offset curve. |
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Preview |
Displays the graphical image of the linear cam. Note: Displayed image depends on the follower type selected in More Options (Translating or Swinging Arm type of follower).
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Follower
General specification of the follower.
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Roller Radius |
Radius of a roller. |
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Roller Width |
Width of roller (only for cylinder shape). |
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Eccentricity Angle |
Angle between follower and Y axis. |
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Pivot Distance |
Distance in Y axis of swinging center of rotation from the roller start position. |
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Arm Length |
Length of swinging arm. |
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Reaction Arm |
Length of reaction arm. |
Actual Segment
Specify parameters of cam segments.
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Actual Segment |
Use the pull-down menu to select actual segment. |
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Motion Function |
Select a motion. Click Plus (Add) to open the Add Motion dialog box where you can specify your own motion to add to the list. Other commands are available only if the user-defined motion is selected in list. The Minus (Delete) command deletes selected user motion. |
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Add Before |
Adds segment before currently selected segment. |
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Delete |
Deletes current segment. |
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Add After |
Adds segment after currently selected segment. |
Graphical display of segments are
When you click a quantity graph in the toolbar, it displays in this area. Click the quantity graph again to turn off the display.
If you place the cursor above the graphs area, the tooltip with graphs values with corresponding units of the actual cursor position displays.
The cam segment can be selected by index in the box in Actual Segment group box or by clicking the appropriate position in graph area.
Zoom switches on/off the zoom to the cam element graphs only.
Save graph data to file saves all graph data and data about the cam profile and follower path to the tab delimited text file. You can open the saved data in the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, if desired. Following columns are generated:
- Cam position [mm]
- Lift [mm]
- Speed [mps]
- Acceleration [m/s 2 ]
- Pulse [m/s 3 ]
- Pressure Angle [deg]
- Follower Force [N]
- Normal Force [N]
- Radius of Curvature [mm]
- Specific Pressure [MPa]
- Profile X coordinate [mm] - Cartesian coordinates
- Profile Y coordinate [mm]
- Follower path X coordinate [mm] - Cartesian coordinates
- Follower path Y coordinate [mm]
(More)
Displays additional options for cam design.
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Number of Split Points |
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Gives an accurate, detailed cam calculation, export values (the Calculation option), and part accuracy when inserting into Autodesk Inventor (the Model option). The angle between drawn points is specified by number of points on a circle (360 points means a 1 degree angle distance of points). |
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Calculation |
Number of calculated points. |
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Model |
Number of points generated in Autodesk Inventor. |
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Cam Direction |
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You can change cam direction to the left motion. |
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You can change cam direction to the right motion. |
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Path Type |
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Click to select the path type. The direction of the path type affects calculation and the Autodesk Inventor model. |
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Lower |
Only lower/inner part. |
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Upper |
Only upper/outer part. |
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Both |
Both parts. |
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Follower Type |
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Select the type of the follower. |
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Translating |
Designs a follower with translation motion. |
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Swinging Arm |
Designs a follower with arc path of motion. |
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Follower Shape |
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Select the shape of the follower. |
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Cylinder |
Designs follower of cylindrical shape. |
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Sphere |
Designs follower of spherical shape. |
Results
To display the Results area on the right side of the Calculation and Design tabs, double-click the double line on the right or click the chevron.
The area displays the limiting values of calculated parameters, result of strength check, and cam shape. Values are calculated when the Calculate command is pressed.
Following output parameters are displayed in the Results pane:
- Results
- Max. Lift (h max )
- Min. Lift (h min )
- Max. Pressure Angle (γ max )
- Min. Pressure Angle (γ min )
- Max. Speed (v max )
- Max. Acceleration (a max )
- Min. Acceleration (a min )
- Segment
- Motion Start Position (l 0 )
- Lift at Start (h 0 )
- Max. Acceleration (a max )
- Min. Acceleration (a min )
- Max. Pulse (j max )
- Min. Pulse (j min )
- Max. Follower Force (F max )
- Min. Follower Force (F min )
- Max. Normal Force (Fn max )
- Min. Normal Force (Fn min )
- Max. Torque (T max )
- Min. Curvature Radius (+) (Rc min )
- Min. Curvature Radius (-) (Rc min2 )
- Max. Specific Pressure (p max )
Summary of Messages
Displays the reports about calculation. To open the Summary of Messages area at the bottom of the Calculation and Design tabs, double-click the double line at the bottom of tabs or click the chevron at the bottom of the tabs.