Chains are a most interesting object to model. They also can be frustrating at times, keeping the sequence of the chain intact can be daunting. With the recentering of objects and the Joint Tool things are greatly simplified.
Getting started
We will begin this tutorial with an already-made link. This is a very useful chain link because there is no need to have two different links, but this one link is the repeating object of the chain.
This is the source file for the link.
Starting with that source file, let us replicate the link. In this small example we’ll use 19 repetitions to end with a 20-link chain.
Now let us select the Joint Tool. With this tool, we shall click on the first link and drag to the second, then click on the second and drag to the third, then click on the third and drag to the fourth… and so on.
We end up with a chain of linked links. The last link, when moved or rotated will apply the same rotation to all the other links. The next to last link will transmit the rotation to all but the last link, and so on. A link will transmit the rotation only to the links preceding it in the linking order.
This method needs a bit of patience and order, but surely beats trying to position all those links by hand.
We recognize a joint-linked object because there is a series of lines with blue dots connecting the linked objects.
The order in which the links are made is important. If we work in reverse order, the chain will be unmanageable, so there may be a bit of trial and error involved at first.
Please share what you make with this little piece of information!
