TwinCAT Cam Design Tool

The TwinCAT Cam Design Tool is available for the development of electronic cam plates. It is fully integrated into the System Manager. Cam plates represent the relationship between the positions of different axes. The independent axis is referred to as the master axis, while the dependent axis is called slave axis. The position of the slave axis is uniquely functional dependent on the position of the master axis.

The Cam Design Tool can be used to develop or modify cam plates interactively on the basis of VDI guideline 2143. The cam plates are composed of sections of laws of motion such as modified sine waves, harmonic combinations, or of various polynomial functions. Speed, acceleration and jerk are also represented in addition to the slave position. An overview window displays the position of the zoomed segment. The overview window can also be used to obtain a new zoomed view, or to shift the segment. The starting and finishing values may be entered graphically and interactively, or in the form of a table. The same applies to boundary values (derivative values) which can also be graphically and interactively modified for the appropriate functions. It is possible, for instance, to drag the second derivative at a point with the mouse in such a way that the continuously updated function and its derivatives adopt the smoothest possible form. In the synchronous sections, the end point can be shifted on the straight line with the mouse (extended stroke time), or the speed values can be raised or lowered, with automatic correction of the slave position.

In order to synchronise to the movement of another slave that has already been defined, it is possible to attach the starting or finishing point of a movement section to that other movement, and to shift it. In this way jerk-restricted, smooth movements are created.

For synchronising several cam plate, all slaves of a master can be displayed simultaneously. Data that already exists in table form can be read into TwinCAT Cam Design Tool, and its derivatives can also be displayed. The generated cam plates can be transferred to the NC as tables with specified step size or as so-called motion functions. Advantages of motion functions include accurate calculation in the NC and the option of online manipulation. The cam plates are saved in the System Manager project and automatically transferred to the NC on system start-up.

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TwinCAT Cam Design Tool	licence for using the TwinCAT Cam Design Tool for the graphical development of programming cams