Cam and follower mate in 3 dimensions

[RMcHugh]

I've been working on this for a few hours. We have a lift that travels around a 65" diameter.

The lift is raised to the cam surface (big gray ring) with shop air.
Then the follower (black roller in the pic) is pushed down as the roller engages the cam surface.

What we want to be able to do is drag the lift clockwise/counter-cw and see the motion of the lift.

I've made surfaces, intersection curves, tried the cam mate.

I've just dabbled a bit with the motion study but it is not intuitive to me at the moment.

Would somebody point me in the right direction, please?

Thank you,

Ray.

[RMcHugh]

I ended up solving this with some indirect tomfoolery:

1. Made a 'flat' version of the cam.
2. Added a rack and pinion mate to a disk that rotated the moving lift.
3. Added a fixed-location lift that followed the flat cam.
4. Mated the fixed-location's lift pad to the moving lift's lift pad.

Now, when I move the moving lift through the cam area, the disk moves the flat cam which drives the fixed cam up and down and the moving lift follows the up and down motion.

Hide the transparent bits and it looks like the lift is following the cam.
Not ideal, but it will help figure out the transition we need.

Ray

[SPerman]

I was going to suggest looking at the path mate, but I didn't think it would solve all of your requirements.

[RMcHugh]

Welp, now I feel foolish.

I just confirmed that Path mate does indeed work.
I was so bent on getting a Cam mate that I overlooked the Path.

It took 30 seconds to Path mate vs. 90 minutes to work out that indirect stuff.

Thanks, @SPerman !