Linear Cam Generator dialog box - Design tab

Sets parameters for design of a linear cam.

Click Calculate to perform the calculation of geometric parameters.

Access:

Ribbon: Design tab

Power Transmission panel

Linear Cam

Cam

General specification of the cam. Use the pull-down menu to select Component or No Model Option.

Component	Creates new component.
No Model	Inserts calculation only.
Start Plane	Select the planar face or work plane as a starting reference. Click Flip to flip the orientation of a start plane.
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.
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).

Follower

General specification of the follower.

Roller Radius	Radius of a roller.
Roller Width	Width of roller (only for cylinder shape).
Eccentricity Angle	Angle between follower and Y axis.
Pivot Distance	Distance in Y axis of swinging center of rotation from the roller start position.
Arm Length	Length of swinging arm.
Reaction Arm	Length of reaction arm.

Actual Segment

Specify parameters of cam segments.

Actual Segment	Use the pull-down menu to select actual segment.
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.
Add Before	Adds segment before currently selected segment.
Delete	Deletes current segment.
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.

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 degree angle distance of points).
Calculation	Number of calculated points.
Model	Number of points generated in Autodesk Inventor.
Cam Direction
	You can change cam direction to the left motion.
	You can change cam direction to the right motion.
Path Type
Click to select the path type. The direction of the path type affects calculation and the Autodesk Inventor model.
Lower	Only lower/inner part.
Upper	Only upper/outer part.
Both	Both parts.
Follower Type
Select the type of the follower.
Translating	Designs a follower with translation motion.
Swinging Arm	Designs a follower with arc path of motion.
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 in 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