A cam is required for features that must be accessed from the side, including bends, lances, edges (for trimming), and holes (for piercing). The same cam can do both trimming and piercing, and can generally handle both multiple edges and multiple holes, as long as all the features are accessible from the same direction. Holes and/or segments handled by the same cam are grouped together into CamBundle GCDs. The Geometric Cost Drivers pane allows you to see which features each cam handles.

The following cost model variables constrain the grouping of GCDs into bundles:

For each CamBundle, the cost model assumes the use of one of the following types of cam:

In starting point VPEs, for cam trimming or cam piercing operations on a given feature, an aerial cam is used if the feature can be accessed from a direction that is less than or equal to 75 degrees from the ram direction. You can customize this threshold with the cost model variable aerialCamAngleUpperThreshold. An aerial cam is also assumed when a cam is required to reach across the part in order to avoid pushing scrap onto the part, and the required reach exceeds that of a typical standard cam (defined by the cost model variable defaultStandardCamWorkTravel--60mm in starting point VPEs). In other cases, standard cams are assumed.

You can override aPriori’s assessment of the number, sizes, and types of the cams required for a part, and use process setup options to specify the number of various sizes of standard and aerial cams.

Note that aerial cam units are itemized separately from standard cam units in the Investment tab and the Transfer Die tooling report, as typically they are more expensive than standard cam units.

See also Cam Piercing and Edge Trimming.