SUCCESS!! A toolpath cut normal to a cylinder (cylindrical cam)

Sporkman · 2005-01-07T04:20:11+00:00

Finally I have found the proper way to create the CORRECT geometry for atoolpath cut normal to a cylindrical surface, and have been able tocreate my cylindrical cam accurately as a result. The thanks go to Dr.J. D. Mather, Assistant Professor in CAD & Product Design at thePennsylvania College of Technology ( He has created anumber of tutorials that reside at: of his tutorials is for a cam that apparently represents a sine waveaccurately. It's a VERY complex creation he's built -- perhaps morecomplex than absolutely necessary, but it's hard for me to say. Thetutorial is definitely worth downloading and looking at, but the core ofthe technique that he (and I) used is the Feature Wrap function. Createa plane tangent to the surface of the cylinder and create a CLOSEDsketch on it. You can create a curve apparently accurately representingthe outline of an endmill cut by offsetting both ways a constructionspline or series of construction elements (controlling the ends of aspline with tangency to line segments is useful) and closing the endswith an arc tangent to both curves. Exit the sketch, select it, and useFeature > Wrap, with the Deboss option selected. This will wrap thecurve onto the cylindrical (or whatever) surface and make a true cutnormal to the surface. The distance value is the amount the projectedcut penetrates. Emboss (obviously) creates just the opposite of a cut. Magic!! Extremely powerful function that I did not realize existed.Kudos and thanks, Dr. Mather. And "way to go" SolidWorks Corporation. And I was cussin' 'em under my breath for not providing that easyfunctionality.Mark 'Sporky' StapletonWatermark Design, LLC

Jan 07, 2005 41 Replies

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Muggs 21 years ago

Dr. Mather and All,

I've posted an example of what Devon is talking about in the Solidworks portion of the mCADForum. But it still seems to be not quite right.

Muggs

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Cliff 21 years ago

Where's jb? Hr's always pretending to be an expert .....

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