Cam-like mate...

Jan 25, 2007 6 Replies

Is it possible to do something like a cam mate but without a closed contour? Kinda like a stylus following the grooves in a record or the pins in a lock following the profile of a key??



I'm working on a push-pull knob assembly that's got a ball-type frictioning device in it and I need the ball bearing to follow an extruded cut on the knob's shaft as the shaft moves in and out of the housing.



Thx!


Don't know the full answer to your question, but if you made the path of the cam be the perifery (sp) of the end of the key that goes into the lock, might that not work as the outline of the cam? You would only have to move along the section of the cam that was "interesting" rather than the whole outline.

Just a thought. Might work. Might not.

Sure. The key is to do a fit spline on the "track" and extrude a surface from that. That way you have one continuous surface to stay attached to. Then take whatever you want to follow it, constrain it in the other directions, and tie it to the spline with a coincident point, or something.

WT

"The OTHER Kevin in San Diego" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

1) Physical dynamics

2) Sketch Blocks

Wayne's method works like a champ. You can put the part with the surface in as an envelope part and not have to worry about it showing up in the BOM too. You can also then insert the same part into the part that actually has the "bumpy" surface and use it to drive it.

Hmm. I thought I'd tried something similar when I 1st started working on this part.. I'll investigate this again.

Thx!

I just now see that I had an error in what I wrote. The last line should read "...tie it to the SURFACE..." Sorry.

WT

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