Cylindrical Cam Generator dialog box - Design tab

Sets parameters for the design of a cylindrical cam.

Click Calculate to perform the calculation of geometric parameters.

Access:

Ribbon: Design tab Power Transmission panel Cylindrical Cam

Cam

General specification of the cam. Use the pull-down menu to select Component or No Model Option. If you select the Component option, the Cylindrical Face and Start plane commands are enabled. The commands are not available if No Model option is selected.

Component	Creates new component. When you select this option, the Cylindrical Face and Start plane commands are enabled, and you can specify the placement of the cylindrical cam.
No Model	Inserts only calculation.
Cylindrical Face	Select the cylindrical face or axis.
Start Plane	Select the start face or work plane. Click Flip to flip the orientation of start plane.
Preview	Displays the graphical image of the cylindrical cam.

Follower

General specification of the follower.

Roller Radius	Radius of a roller.
Eccentr. Angle	Angle between follower motion direction and cam axis.

Actual Segment

Specify parameters of cam segments.

Actual Segment	Use the pull-down menu to select actual segment.
Motion Function	Use the selection list to select the appropriate motion. Click Plus (Add) to open the Add Motion dialog box where you can specify your own motion which is added to the list. Other commands are available only when a motion is selected in the list. The Minus (Delete) command deletes current/selected user motion.
Add Before	Adds segment before currently selected segment.
Delete	Deletes current segment.
Add After	Adds segment after currently selected segment.

Graphical display of segments area

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 combo box in Actual Segment area or by clicking on 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 [deg]
• Lift [mm]
• Speed [mps]
• Acceleration [m/s ² ]
• Pulse [m/s ³ ]
• Pressure Angle [deg]
• Follower Force [N]
• Normal Force [N]
• Torque [N m]
• Radius of Curvature [mm]
• Specific Pressure [MPa]
• Profile angle [deg]
• Profile height [mm]
• Profile X coordinate [mm] - 3D Cartesian coordinates
• Profile Y coordinate [mm]
• Profile Z coordinate [mm]
• Follower path angle [deg] - pseudo polar coordinates
• Follower path height [mm]
• Follower path X coordinate [mm] - 3D Cartesian coordinates
• Follower path Y coordinate [mm]
• Follower path Z coordinate [mm]

(More)

Displays additional options for cam design.

Number of Split Points

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° angle distance of points).

Calculation	Number of calculated points.
Model	Number of points generated in Autodesk Inventor.
Cam Direction
	Select cam direction of clockwise or counterclockwise.
Path Type
Click to select the path type. The direction of the path type affects calculation and the Autodesk Inventor model.
Inner	Only lower/inner part.
Outer	Only upper/outer part.
Both	Both parts.
Follower Shape
Select the shape of the follower.
Cylinder	Designs follower of cylindrical shape.
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 on the Results pane:

Note: For further description of the calculated parameters, see Engineer's Handbook.

• 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.

Toolbar Commands