What you're talking about is quite possible. However the idea of being able to "drag" one end of the chain freely and have the other react does complicate it a bit. You'd probably want to sketch out the chain path and use a pattern to determine your total length of chain around the curve. That's probably the easiest way.
I've attached a simple example of how this could work. Please feel free to open and dig through it and let me know if you have any questions about how I approached the issue. I kind of did it in a hurry so I hope that it's not too confusing.
Hope this helps.
NOTE: You'll find in mine that instead of being able to click and drag the first link, you'll have to edit an offset dimension in the sketch path. This will, however, move all the links along the path and maintain the full length (Number of Links x Link Length). If you want to be able to pull the link and have the pattern follow, you'd need to project a point from the first link into the path part so that it becomes adaptive. I've attached a couple of word documents I made some time ago to help my co-workers through the same process.
Sorry this explaination isn't more thorough.
Without seeing the actual model, it is very hard to comment on specifics. Is it possible you can create a sketch on the plane of motion and then project geometry and create a driven dimension? In this way, the driven dimension will be captured as a parameter.
Thanks!
Hi! I did have similar problem uploading files using Internet Explorer a while back but it seemed machine dependent. I am able to upload files to the forum without an issue using Firefox.
Regarding your dataset, please feel free send them to me (johnson.shiue@autodesk.com). I would like to take a look and understand the requirement better.
Thanks!
Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.