Chain around gears in LDCad

[NikosSprocket]

Hello!

Using LDCad 1.6d I am trying to wrap a chain around gears. I am using Roland's rubber band and pipe tutorials but I hit a few problems.

First, the 40 link chain loop, in the three gear configuration (3 gear image). When I try to wrap it around the far away small gear by reducing the perimeter, as I did with the rubber band tutorial, it actually changes the size of the links (scale down?). On the same project, I have no clue (no really!!) how to wrap the chain inside the middle gear as the red lines indicate in the image with the 3 gears.
On the second test I try to use multiple 5 link chain segments to complete the loop. I manage to orient a few of them around the big gear but I got stuck wrapping one of the segments to the small gear. Image with 2 gears.

I have also attached the actual ldr files. NikosSprocket.ldr has 2 gears configuration and the other one has the 3 gears configuration.

Any suggestions/tutorials etc. most appreciated.

Cheers!
Nikos

[Philippe Hurbain]

I made a short video showing how to create the loop around your three gears:

Yellow rectangle show the keys and mouse clicks used.
Shortcuts used:
"O" to put the origin on an existing part
"shift+C" to move selected element to the origin.
...and the trick to be on the correct side of gear: select the control point, right click, change winding from CW to CCW.
Note that I slightly goofed in my video, I put the origin in the middle of pin instead of gear, so the chain was out of plane, and I had to correct that...

I don't see the point of your other example, why don't you use a single chain element?

[NikosSprocket]

I made a short video showing how to create the loop around your three gears:

Yellow rectangle show the keys and mouse clicks used.
Shortcuts used:
"O" to put the origin on an existing part
"shift+C" to move selected element to the origin.
...and the trick to be on the correct side of gear: select the control point, right click, change winding from CW to CCW.
Note that I slightly goofed in my video, I put the origin in the middle of pin instead of gear, so the chain was out of plane, and I had to correct that...

I don't see the point of your other example, why don't you use a single chain element?

[Philippe Hurbain]

???

[NikosSprocket]

???

Hi Philippe,

First of all, thank you soo much for the quick tutorial on wrapping the chain. I will get to it later in the afternoon.

Secondly, I would like to apologize for the blank reply. I tried to reply from my Android Tablet and somehow the text never made it in the reply!

Back to the chain; originally I wanted to use a chain with less than 40 links so I started using the 5 link segment. When I realized the complexity of using multiple nested groups I "re-designed it with the three gear setup so  I can use the 40 link chain. Is there a way I can remove or add links to the loop or even join single links?

Thank you,
Nikos

[NikosSprocket]

It worked!

Thank you again!

Nikos

[NikosSprocket]

Final question for this year!

What will be the best way to create a loop of a chain that is 85 links and going around gears?

Cheers!
Nikos

[David Manley]

Final question for this year!

What will be the best way to create a loop of a chain that is 85 links and going around gears?

Cheers!
Nikos

The same way. Start with the 40 link chain template and move one of the end points within the template. The "40" in the name is an indicator of the initial length of the chain but as you make the chain longer by moving one of the end points, the number of links increases appropriately without you needing to add the extra links yourself.

Regards,

David

[NikosSprocket]

The same way. Start with the 40 link chain template and move one of the end points within the template. The "40" in the name is an indicator of the initial length of the chain but as you make the chain longer by moving one of the end points, the number of links increases appropriately without you needing to add the extra links yourself.

Regards,

David

Thank you David,

I have not tried it yet but I will assume similarly can be shrunk too.

Cheers!
Nikos