Save Cam Surface as :	Bi-Arcs	Equal Machine Angle Increments
STEP :	N/A	Internal, External as Surfaces
TEXT :	Internal, External	Internal, External, Pitch-Curve
DXF :	Internal, External	Internal, External

Direct export to SOLIDWORKS as :	Internal, External	Internal, External, Pitch-Curve
Table of 2D-Cam file-types and formats

Cam-Coordinates dialog-box

Cam Coordinates dialog-box - MD14.

Top-Tip:

To 'paste' cam coordinate data directly into Excel®

1.	Select the 'Tab' delimiter

2.	Calculate the Data with the Recalculate button

3.	Click the 'Copy all data to the Clipboard

4.	In excel, Paste Special

Clear Data in the table

Save as File types

•

STEP

•

DXF

•

ASC

•

TXT

Copy Data in table to Clipboard

Calculate Coordinates for

•	Internal Cam 1

•	External Cam 2

•	Pitch-Curve

Toggle :

Equal Increments: Calculate Cam-Coordinates with equal increments of Master Machine Angle with the 'Number-of-Points' as entered in '# Points' [10].

Chord Error: Calculate Cam with Biarcs, with a maximum Chord Error equal to the value in Box [10]

Calculate Cam Coordinates as:

XY-Points as Equal Machine Angle Increments

Bi-Arcs with a Chord Error

Send Cam-Coordinates to SOLIDWORKS®.

To a new or an existing open SOLIDWORKS® Part document.

Save the active SOLIDWORKS® document before you click button

Bi-Arcs are constructed in SOLIDWORKS as sketch entities.

Points are constructed in SOLIDWORKS as Curves, which you can convert to a Spline sketch-element. See Note 4

Note: You can also save the Cam as a STEP file.

Traffic-Light Red - Click to calculate coordinates.

Traffic Light Green - Cam Coordinates are ready. You can save them to disk or export to SOLIDWORKS®

When you click this icon, MechDesigner calculates the Cam-Coordinates again with:

•	[4]: Cam 1 or Cam 2 or the Pitch Circle Coordinates

•	[5] Equal increments of the Master Machine Angle[Points only] or Chord Error [Biarcs only]

•	[6] Points or Biarcs

[Does not do anything [MD14+]]: Closed Cam: When you calculate the Cam-Coordinates, the first and last cam point become different.

[Does do anything [MD14+]] Open Cam: The first and last coordinate become the same. The cam will be closed.

Click to display a Cam 'plot' of actual cam-points that are calculated.

Enter Maximum Chord Error

Use with 'Chord Error' option. [Minimum ~0.1µm. Experiment!]

Enter Number-of-Points

Use with 'Equal Increments' option. [Maximum ~100,000. Experiment!]

'Save Options' button [See 'Save Options' box, below]

Delimiter for a Cam Save as TXT file: Comma [,]; Tab [ ]; Colon [:]; Space [ ]; Semi-Colon [;]; Dash [-].

STEP File Options:

Spline with End Corrections?

Spline to Interpolate 'actual' Kinematic Points?

The Calculated Cam Coordinates, using the button settings detailed above.

Save Options button:

'Save Options' box.

Click the Save Option buttons to show:

Delimiters

When you save the Cam data to a text file, you can add a different 'delimiter' between each column of data at each cam 'index'.

STEP Save Options:

◉	End Correction

◉	Interpolate kinematic points.

Notes:

Note 1: For a rotating 2D-Cam (a standard 2D-Cam), make sure the Origin of the Part is the Centre of the Cam.

Note 3: The maximum error between the 'true' cam and the actual cam data is less with Chord Error with Arcs than with Chord Error with Line.

Note 4: The data will be on the XY Plane, with Z columns as '0'. SOLIDWORKS fits a Spline to it immediately.

If you need to put the data on a different plane in SolidWorks, then you will need to change the data slightly in Excel. Add a column of zeros in the X, Y or Z column. Possibly multiply a column -1. Then import the data as a Curve entity into SOLIDWORKS.

The Cam as Arc Data has six columns:

1	2	3	4	5	6
Arc Radius	Arc Start Point X Coordinate	Arc End Point X Coordinate	Arc Start Point Y Coordinate	Arc End Point Y Coordinate	Arc Angle Range (degs)

Tutorial and Reference Help Files for MechDesigner and MotionDesigner 13.2 + © Machine, Mechanism, Motion and Cam Design Software by PSMotion Ltd