There are two formats: Short and Extended.

Short : Cam Visibility -

Cam Visibilities when Show Roller and Cam Lifetimes is NOT enabled When you Disable Show Roller and Cam Lifetimes (see Parameters tab) Cam Display Options : ◉ Inner - usually the smaller cam-profile ◉ Outer - usually the larger cam-profile ◉ Groove - the Inner and Outer Cam-Profiles ◉ Pitch-center - the path of the center-point of a Follower-Profile bearing relative to the Cam-Part. This is only meaningful when the Follower-Profile is a roller bearing. You can enable: ❑ Pitch-center - enable to show the path of the center-Point of a Follower-Roller relative to the Cam-Part. This is only meaningful when the Follower-Profile is a roller bearing. ❑ Show Radius-of-Curvature - enable to show the Radius-of-Curvature at the contact-point of the Cam-Profile and the Follower-Profile.

Extended : Cam Visibility

Cam Visibilities when Show Roller and Cam Lifetimes is enabled When you Enable Show Roller and Cam Lifetimes (see Parameters tab) Cam Display Options :: ◉ Inner - Inside / Internal cam-profile only ◉ Outer - Outside / External cam-profile only You can enable: ❑ Pitch-center - enable to show the path of the center-Point of a Follower-Roller relative to the Cam-Part. ❑ Show Radius-of-Curvature - enable to show the Radius-of-Curvature at the contact-point of the Cam-Profile and the Follower-Roller

Select one from:

* Configure the Power Source to calculate correctly.

Cam-Profile Line Thickness: (default =1)

Edit the thickness of the Cam-Profile.

Cam-Profile Color button

Edit the color of the Cam-Profile.

It is useful when there are many Cam-Profiles in your model, and you change each Cam-Profile to a different color.

TOP-TIP - rename the 2D-Cam element to the color you select for the Cam-Profile.

Show Instant centers : For the kinemagicians!

Enable Show END-Caps check-box

Without End-Caps

With End-Caps

This check-box shows only when MechDesigner detects that the Cam is “open”.

A Cam is open if the start and end of the Cam-Profile are not in the same place.

With Slot-Cam types, it is frequently possible to close the Cam-Profile with End-Caps - see image above.

Note:

Slot-Cams can have various “complications”, you may need to simplify the motions of the Slot-Part and/or the Follower.

◉ Cam Profile

Outer and Inner cams are continuous lines.

Pitch-Center Path is a dashed line.

◉ Maximum Shear-Stress

Maximum Shear Stress value next to the contact point

Color of the cam agrees with the color-bar

Color-bar indicates the scale of the Maximum Shear-Stress

Notes:

Maximum Shear-Stress is below the surface, at 0.78 × Contact Width for Line-Contact.

Maximum Shear-Stress is = 0.3 × Contact Stress for Line-Contact.

◉ Contact Force

Contact Force is at the contact point.

Color of the Cam and Color-Bar agree with the Contact Force

◉ Pressure Angle

Pressure Angle is adjacent to the contact point

Color of the cam agrees with the color-bar

Color-bar as scale of the Pressure Angle

See also Pressure Angle