Learning Fusion Part 5 [Adding Chain]

To start off, yes, this needs its own post. Compared to everything else in fusion adding chain is surprisingly hard, and mostly for cosmetic purposes. I would only add this as a final step, as it is quite annoying to change.

To start, create a sketch of the path that you want the chain to take.

An example of how we added tread to an intake ( sprockets not shown). The blue outline is the path that we referenced..

For most , this will consist of a rectangle with two arcs on either end. Then, import your 1 link of chain, and move it so that it is placed in one of the crooks of the sprocket, like how it would normally sit (the point to point feature on the move tool is especially useful for this). Another thing to point out is that usually the chain imports in an angle that is parallel or perpendicular to the planes. Use this to your advantage and place chain in a spot in the path so that the direction of the chain is tangent to the direction of the path.

Then go to create--> pattern --> pattern on path, and then select your sketch and chain. Change orientation to path direction, and Here's where it gets a little bit...weird. You can adjust the number of chain links and the distance that they extend (you can get these numbers by using the measure tool and dividing). We have had some success with this, but also sometimes the chain links will not line up no matter what we do. We still honestly know what is happening, but if we redo it, the links line up. Overall we try to avoid doing this because the process is a bit sketchy (no pun intended). Here is a good video that we have been learning from (definitely check it out because he shows the process in Fusion, as well).