Chain Link

[Anonymous]

I need to draw a chain. Not a bicycle type chain but an anchor or neck chain. I can produce the links without any problem in Inventor. But how do I constrain the links together so that they act like a length chain would

[JDMather]

Perhaps with assembly Tangent Constraints or Dynamic Simulation Joints.
What is the purpose of having the chain act like the real chain?  (impacts ideal solution)
Can you attach your assembly here?

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your swift response. This is one chain link, i need to link several together to form a complete chain. But I would like them to be efree to move around as a chain but not come apart.

Eventually I would like to be able to lift a table like structure using the chain which is will wrap around a bar as the bar rotates.

But one step at a time. I look forward to hearing from you.

[JDMather]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Eventually I would like to be able to lift a table like structure using the chain which is will wrap around a bar as the bar rotates.

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Do you need slack position or only while taught under lifting pressure?
Is this merely for visual animation eye candy or do you intend to do analysis?

Do you have a version of Inventor with Dynamic Simulation?

While not absolutely necessary, it might be best if the part was modeled with as much symmetry about the origin as possible.  As it is the first thing I would do is move to the origin.

[Anonymous]

Create workpoints or work axis. See attached 2011 files.

[Anonymous]

From Cbliss.com

http://www.cbliss.com/inventor/Parts/Hardware/ChainLinks.zip

Not iParts, A set of links which are constrained to "fall" naturally

225K

[Anonymous]

Thank you everybody for youor response. This is for visual eye candy, there will be no need for any analysis.

[MkEHWD]

Hi! 14 years later.. So I have the same question: is there a way to have an adaptive chain that follows a sketch. 

I currently use Feature patterns with workpoints but it's far from perfect. If I want a longer chian it gets complicated. any ideas? Thanks

[89198826955]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnL43cw7tuI

[blandb]

Using feature patterns is what I did here in this quick example: