About the Trace Curve Dialog Box
Click
Analysis >
Trace Curve to access the
Trace Curve dialog box and generate a trace curve or a cam synthesis curve.
• Paper part—Select a body on your assembly or subassembly as the reference on which to trace the curve. If you visualize a pen tracing on paper, you can think of this part as the paper. The trace curve you generate will be a feature of the part you select as the paper part. You can access trace curves and cam synthesis curves from the Model Tree.
To trace the motion of a body relative to ground, select a body that is in ground for the paper part.
• Trace—Select the type of curve you want to generate from the list:
◦ Trace Curve—Use the selector arrow to select a point, vertex, or curve endpoint on your assembly. The point must be on a different body from the one you selected for the paper part. The software uses the trajectory of this point to define the trace curve. If you visualize a pen tracing on paper, this location is like the tip of the pen.
◦ Cam synthesis curves—Use the selector arrow to select a curve or edge on your assembly. The curve must be on a different body from the one you selected for the paper part. The software uses the trajectory of this curve to generate an internal and external curve for the envelope. Each resulting cam synthesis curve must define a plane.
You can select an open curve or closed loop, or multiple continuous curves or edges. The curves you select are automatically smoothed.
If you select an open curve, the software determines the two points on the curve that are closest and farthest from the rotational axis at each time step in the motion run. Two spline curves are generated, one from the series of closest points, and the other from the series of farthest points.
• 2D or 3D–Select the type of trace curve that you want to make:
◦ 2D–2D cam synthesis curves
◦ 3D–Edit the display of 3D trace curves
• Result Set–Select a motion run result set from the list of available sets.
• Click
to load a saved result set from a file on your disk. When the
Select playback file dialog box opens, select a result set from a previous session and click
Open. The selected result set appears in the list of result sets on the
Trace Curve dialog box. Select the result set you want to use for the trace curve.
• Click OK to create a datum curve feature in the paper part showing the trace curve or planar cam synthesis curves for the selected result set. To save the datum curve feature, you must save the part.
• Click Preview to start the analysis and generate the trace curve or cam synthesis curves.
• Click Cancel to exit the Trace Curve dialog box.