project design

its a magnetic lift..

what i meant is .....
is the motion of the bar/lift in some way related(proportionally ).. with the rotation of the shaft..??
or is it a simple on/off mechanism???
thus u can decide wether to go for solenoid-like or use stepper motor -like mechanism..

yeah even i am confused.. and i am more confused because.. i am not able to decide if there is equal importance of shape of the holder? and how does it look like...