motion guru
Diamond
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2003
- Location
- Yacolt, WA
I designed a barrel cam for an automated machine that is straight cut along 180 degrees of rotation, then a helix along 60 degrees of rotation pulling a cam follower back 2 inches, then straight again for 60 degrees, then a 90 degree turn back to the first path.
After some futzing I figured out how to model it - now I am having a devil of a time getting a cam follower to mate to the surfaces.
I have tried tangent mates, path mates, etc. with marginal results. (the model locks up tight in places or jumps around rather than smoothly rotating).
Anyone here have experience with barrel cams and animating a cam follower to follow the cam? I would like to animate the linkage design for a customer presentation and the process of defining a mate to geometric surfaces works fine - but the helix portion causes the model to puke.
After some futzing I figured out how to model it - now I am having a devil of a time getting a cam follower to mate to the surfaces.
I have tried tangent mates, path mates, etc. with marginal results. (the model locks up tight in places or jumps around rather than smoothly rotating).
Anyone here have experience with barrel cams and animating a cam follower to follow the cam? I would like to animate the linkage design for a customer presentation and the process of defining a mate to geometric surfaces works fine - but the helix portion causes the model to puke.