Chain and Sprocket Animation

Software Used:

AutoCAD 2008
Solid Edge ST2
Max 3DS 2009
3DS Export for Solid Edge Plugin

All the software listed above except for Max is only used to get my raw objects prepared and into Max. I am primarily
interested in making working models of mechanical machines. Most of the raw parts of the machines have already
been modelled by others using the Solid Edge software. A lot of what I will describe in the first few parts of this
explanation is particular to my case of where I get my source objects and may not be of much relevance of interest to
others. However, the aim of writing up this is to provide a complete step by step guide to how I created this animation
and I have assumed almost no prior knowledge in the hope that this may be of some benefit to someone else.
Therefore, for what it is worth, my intention is to try and fully explain everything I did in the process of creating and
animating this chain model.

One more important point - please understand that I am merely a happy amateur at all this. I have been using Max on
and off for about 3 years now...however I am well aware that I lack some very basic knowledge. I know almost
nothing about rigging, IK solvers, constraints, scripting, lighting and many, many other things....so, I do not presume to
propose this as a tutorial as such.....rather just a description of what I did. I am sure there are more effective and
efficient methods to do all of what follows!

Anyway, here goes:

I have a 3d model of a chain and two sprockets already previously modelled in Solid Edge. However I have no way of
getting this model into Max in one piece - so I take the basic pieces I need and then rebuild it inside Max. This is what
it looks like is Solid Edge shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

I also have a full scale 2D CAD drawing of the relevant part as an AutoCAD drawing. As this is for a mechanical
machine model I am interested in getting shapes and actual dimensions as accurate as possible therefore I will use
the 2D drawing to make my path for the chain to follow. Here is the basic full scale 2D drawing I will use as a starting
point open in AutoCAD shown in Fig. 2.

Page 1 of 31 
 
Fig. 2

What I need to determine is the radius of the two sprockets and the line that the chain will take between them. Note
that in the above drawing the chain is shown as having a slightly curved path on the left hand side. I will not bother
with this and simply have the chain follow a straight path between the two sprockets.

Firstly I delete everything except the centre lines and a couple of the chain links on the top and bottom of the small
sprocket and large sprocket respectively like this (Fig. 3):

Fig. 3 Fig. 4

I want to know the radius from each sprocket centre to the centre of the chain links as they pass over the sprockets.
So : Menu Bar: Tools - Inquiry - Distance - (Snap to intersection of centre line) to (snap to centre of circle on chain link)
(Fig. 4).

This tells me that the radius of the chain as it goes around the small sprocket is 45.7314mm.

Page 2 of 31 
 
Doing the same for the large sprocket gives a radius of 91.7088mm and vertical distance between the two centres as
175mm. With these measurements I can now start to build the chain path. So, start a new AutoCAD drawing and first
create the two centres at 175mm vertical distance between and create two circles with radius of 45.7314mm and
91.7088. To make the straight path between the two circles:
Line - (snap to tangent) small circle - (snap to tangent) large circle and this should give you as shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5 Fig. 6

Now Mirror the straight section around the vertical centre and use the Trim command to remove the unneeded parts of
the circles. This gives the basic path we need for the chain now - Fig. 6. However before we can use this in Max we
need to make the path one complete polyline by using the pedit command typed into the command line:

pedit
Select polyline or [Multiple]: (click on large curve)
Object selected is not a polyline
Do you want to turn it into one? <Y>: (enter)
Enter an option [Close/Join/Width/Edit vertex/Fit/Spline/Decurve/Ltype gen/Undo]: (j)
Select objects: (click on the straight section, smaller curve and other straight section the press enter)
Enter an option [Close/Join/Width/Edit vertex/Fit/Spline/Decurve/Ltype gen/Undo]: (enter)

The above results in the path now being one continuous polyline (Fig. 7):

Fig. 7
Now run the purge command to get rid of any unwanted items that may be lurking around (command line type - Purge
- all) and then save the drawing file. I will save mine as Chain Path.dwg.
Page 3 of 31 
 
Now we can import this path drawing into Max as follows:

File - Import - (browse to Chain Path.dwg) accept all the defaults in the "AutoCAD DWG/DXF Import Options" dialog
box and we get this (Fig. 8):

Fig. 8

To keep things easy to understand (for me!) I rotate everything by 90° so that I can work on the shape using the front
view and change the colours and rename everything like this (Fig. 9):

Fig. 9

Page 4 of 31 
 
Note that when I first imported and renamed the objects both the Centre Line objects were shown nested as part of a
block called SEANNOT_GROUP1 and SEANNOT_GROUP2 respectively (Fig. 10):

Fig. 10 Fig. 11

I have no idea what this means - but in the interests of keeping things simple I was able to select the block item and
delete them without affecting the Centre Line objects see Fig. 11.

OK, so I now have the path I want my chain to follow. Now to get the actual chain object. As mentioned before these
objects are exported from Solid Edge using the 3DS Export plugin for Solid Edge which creates *.3ds format files from
Solid Edge part files.

The chain itself is made up from two parts - a male link and a female link. I imported these two parts separately into
Max and then imported the large and small sprockets also. Note that when importing these 3ds format files there is
mismatch somewhere either in Solid Edge or Max between metric and imperial? This means that all items I import
using this method I need to scale them by 2540 immediately after the import to keep everything in correct scale - I
always use mm as the Max system units.

Again, to keep things simple I gave everything a colour and a meaningful name so I now have the following (Fig. 12 &
Fig. 13):

Fig. 12

Page 5 of 31 
 
Fig. 13

Page 6 of 31 
 
So if we forget about the sprockets for the moment and concentrate on the chain:

Taking the Male Link first:

Selecting the Male Link by clicking on it shows that the object pivot point is nicely centred to the object (Fig 14):

Fig. 14

This is important as this will provide an accurate reference point both for lining up the link on the path and also for
when we set the link to follow the path using a path constraint later.

So, to position the first Male Link of the chain on the path I did the following steps:

Firstly, select the Male Link, and then select the "Move" command from the toolbar (Fig. 15):

Fig. 15

and drag the Male Link somewhere close to the middle of the left side straight section of the path (Fig 16):

Fig 16

This gets the part close enough to use the snap tools for precise placement on the path.
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Now put the cursor over the "Snaps Toggle" button on the toolbar and right click to open the Grid and Snap Settings
dialog box (Fig. 18 & Fig 19):

Fig. 18

Fig. 19

Select the Pivot and Midpoint Snaps as shown in Fig. 19 and then close the dialog using the "X" button in the top right
corner. Now go back to the "Snaps Toggle" button on the toolbar and this time left click to enable the snap settings
we just set. The "Snaps Toggle" button should now be yellow to show that the snaps options are enabled (Fig. 20):

Fig. 20

Now select the Male Link and move the cursor around until you pick up the snap on the pivot point as shown (Fig. 21):

Fig. 21

Once you pick up the pivot point hold down the left mouse button and drag the Male Link towards the straight section
of the Chain Path. Still holding down the left mouse button, move the cursor along the line until you pick up the
midpoint snap of the line (Fig. 22):

Page 8 of 31 
 
Fig. 22

As soon as you pick up the midpoint snap, release the mouse button and the Male Link should move and now be lined
up perfectly with the centre of the link at the midpoint of the line (Fig. 23):

Fig. 23

Click the "Snaps Toggle" button to turn off the snap function

The next thing we want to do is to use the Path Constraint to link the Male Link object to the Chain Path object.

Select the Male Link and then from the top menu: Animation - Constraints - Path Constraint (Fig. 24)

Fig. 24
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Now once you have selected the Path Constraint option, in the prompt in the bottom left of the Max screen you are
prompted to "Pick Shape to Constrain to" (Fig. 25)

Fig. 25 Fig. 26

Move the cursor over the Chain Path and then click (Fig. 26). This will now link the Male Link to Chain Path and move
the Male Link object to 0% the way along the path (Fig. 27):

Fig. 27
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We now need to make some adjustment to the Path Parameters. With Male Link selected select the "Motion" group of
commands using the tabs shown on the right hand side of the Max screen (Fig. 28) and make sure that the
"Parameters" button is active:

Fig. 28 Fig. 29

Scroll down to the "Path Parameters" section and check "Follow", "Allow Upside Down", "Constant Velocity" and
"Loop" options as shown (Fig. 29)

The Male Link has now flipped around and is aligned correctly with the path. Now if you click the "Play Animation"
button in the lower right hand of the max screen you should see the Male Link now move along the Chain Path
correctly (Fig. 30).

Fig. 30

Next, ensure that the time line is rest back to frame zero then repeat the exact same steps for the Female Link object.

Page 11 of 31 
 
Once you have repeated the same steps for the Female Link you should now have both links sitting at the same
position on the Chain Path and correctly aligned like this (Fig. 31):

Fig. 31

Now the next think we need to do is to move the Female Link along the path the correct distance so that it looks like it
is correctly attached to the Male Link.

Make sure that Female Link is selected and again go to the "Path Parameters" section of the "Motion" group. We now
want to adjust the "% Along Path" number to make the relative positions of the Male Link and Female Link look correct.

Now it just so happens that in my model there is exactly 2% of path length between each of the Male and Female
Links - (Note that the path and the links have all been correct scaled and imported from real engineering data so I
know that there are exactly 50 links on this chain). Therefore by changing the "% Along Path" parameter to 2% for the
Female Link then this positions the object perfectly in relation to the first Male Link object (Fig. 32 & Fig. 33)

Fig. 32
Page 12 of 31 
 
Fig. 33

Now to make the rest of the chain links we need to "Clone" each male and female link and set them at the correct
distance along the path as follows:

Select Male Link and then right mouse click to bring up the popup menu - then select clone (Fig. 34)

Fig. 34 Fig. 35

In the Clone Options dialog box make sure "Copy" option is selected and click "OK" (Fig. 35)

This creates an exact copy of the Male Link object called "Male Link01" in the exact same position. Now making sure
that the new Male Link01 object is selected, again go to the "Path Parameters" section of the Motion group and set the
"% Along Path Parameter" to 4%. This will then move the new Male Link01 to the correct position along the path (Fig.
36)

Page 13 of 31 
 
Fig. 36 Fig. 37

Note that there is 2% of path distance between each link (male-female) therefore between each respective Male Link
there is 4% of path distance. Of course the same also applies to each Female Link.

Now select the Female Link and repeat the same process - this time you will change the "% Along Path Variable" from
2% to 6% (Fig. 37).

Continue this process for each required Male and Female link until you have all the required links for 100% along the
path. When it is done it should look like this (Fig. 38 & Fig. 39):

Fig. 38 Fig. 39

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Now, if you run the animation in perspective view you can see that this will give you a pretty nice animation of the
chain running (minus sprockets of course). However, I want this chain to be part of a precise mechanical machine so
I need to be able to control the exact speed that the chain is travelling around the path. At present the speed of the
chain along the path is a function of how many frames that were in the timeline when the path was assigned. I need
to be able to precisely control both the speed and direction of the chain to match the rotation of the sprockets which
are ultimately governed by the operation of the final machine. So, these are the next steps.

Firstly some thinking ahead - I want to eventually make this chain part of a fully animated machine model. As part of
the operation of the machine the chain should run in the counter clockwise (CCW) direction for 73 seconds and then
immediately change direction to clockwise (CW) and run in this direction for a further 73 seconds. I also want to have
5 seconds at the start of the animation before the machine begins operating and 5 seconds at the end after the
machine has finished operation

Now for the purposes of the animation I want to relate the time in seconds to numbers of frames. I plan to render this
in 1080p HD at 30 frames per second (fps). So in terms of frame numbers I calculate the following:

Time (seconds) Event Frame Number

0 Animation Sequence Start 0

5 Machine Operation Starts 150
78 Machine Operation Changes Direction 2340
151 Machine Operation Stops 4530
156 Animation Sequence Ends 4680

So my total animation will be 156 seconds long and I need 4680 frames for this. Therefore I need to set the number of
frames in Max: Click the Time Configuration button in the bottom right of the Max screen (Fig. 40) to open Time
Configuration dialog (Fig 41). In the "Animation" section set the end time to be 4680 and then close by clicking "OK".

Fig. 40 Fig. 41

Now if you run the animation you will see that the chain now only travels along the path for the first 100 frames and
then stops, however that is fine for the moment. We will rescale the chain movement later anyway.

Page 15 of 31 
 
Now we shall leave the chain for a while and work on the two sprockets. I want to position the two sprockets and set
up the correct animation for these. Up until now I have been working with these hidden since we previously imported
them into Max so I will now unhide the Small Sprocket object (Fig 42).

Fig. 42

I need to ensure that the centre of the small sprocket is lined up with the centre of the arc forming the top part of the
chain path. Therefore again using the snaps function set the snap to only "Pivot". The small sprocket can then be
moved by first snapping on to the Small Sprocket pivot and then dragging until it snaps on to the pivot of the Small
Sprocket Centreline object. This will align the sprocket correctly in the exact centre as required (Fig. 43).

Fig. 43

Page 16 of 31 
 
Now looking closely at the point where the gear sprocket meshes with the chain we can see that it is not quite
correctly lined up. (Fig 44).

Fig. 44

To resolve this, firstly make sure the timeline is at frame 0. Also make sure that the Angle Snap Toggle is not enabled.
Now with the Small Sprocket object selected, click on the rotate tool on the tool bar and manually rotate the Small
Sprocket until it lines up correctly with the gaps in the chain links. I found that 8° of rotation in "X" line up the chain
and Small Sprocket nicely (Fig. 45)

Fig. 45

Then repeat the same process for the Large Sprocket object and the bottom curve of the chain. To correct align the
teeth I used 4.5° of rotation for the Large Sprocket. You should now have what is shown in Fig. 46 and Fig. 47.

Fig. 46 Fig. 47

Page 17 of 31 
 
For the particular machine this is part of I know that the Small Sprocket will rotate at 50RPM. However, for the
purpose of this test I will make the Small Sprocket object rotate at 10RPM. I will use this item as the datum point for
all the other animation items.

For the animation of the Small Sprocket I calculated the following:

10 RPM = 10/60 rev per sec = 0.166.....

  1 second = 0.166... x one revolution

= 0.166... x 360°
= 60°

  30 frames = 60° of rotation

  1 frame = (60/30)° of rotation

  1 frame = 2° of rotation

So I now know that for each frame of animation the Small Sprocket should rotate 2°. Using the frame numbers I
calculated before based on the timings, I can calculate the total number of degrees required for the Small Sprocket
object as follows:

From frame 150 to 2340 = 2190 frames

 Total degrees CCW = 2190 x 2

= 4380°

From frame 2340 to 4530 = 2190 frames

 Total degrees CW = 2190 x 2

= 4380°

I can now use these numbers to set the Small Sprocket animation using the Curve Editor. To open the curve editor,
click on the Small Sprocket to select it and then click the right mouse button and select Curve Editor as shown in Fig.
48.

Fig. 48 Fig. 49
Page 18 of 31 
 
With Curve Editor open in the left side pane select Small Sprocket - X Rotation (Fig. 49) and the curve editor should
be as displayed in Fig. 50.

Fig.50

In this case the Curve Editor is displaying the number of frames along the X axis and the degrees of rotation on the Y
axis. Note the horizontal red line at 8°. This reflects the 8° of rotation we previously applied to the Small Sprocket
object to make it line up better with the links of the chain. Using the Curve Editor we can easily input the animation for
the Small Sprocket in a graphical manner. We need to add four keys for each of the four stages in the Small Sprocket
animation as follows:

Key 1 to Key 2 - First 5 seconds of animation - no rotation

Key 2 to Key 3 - Next 73 seconds of animation - CCW rotation
Key 3 to Key 4 - Next 73 seconds of animation - CW rotation
Key 4 to Key 5 - Last 5 seconds of animation - no rotation.

We already know the required frame numbers (X axis value) from our previous calculation. We also know the
required number of degrees or rotation, however to get the correct value for the Y axis we need to consider the initial 8°
offset. Therefore the values for each of the keys is as follows:

Key Number X Y
1 0 8
2 150 8
3 2340 (8 + 4380) = 4388
4 4530 (4388 - 4380) = 8
5 4680 8

To begin adding the keys to the curve click on the Add Keys button on the toolbar (Fig. 51) and click 5 times in any
place along the red line. Then put the cursor over the last key and right click to display the dialog box as shown in Fig.
51. Now simply enter the required time and value for key 5 as calculated above. Repeat for each of the four
remaining four keys.

Page 19 of 31 
 
Fig. 50 Fig. 51
Once you have entered the correct value for each of the keys using the Menu Bar at the top of the screen select the
following:

View - Zoom Horizontal Extents Keys

View - Zoom Value Extents

Fig. 52

You should now see the same as shown in Fig. 52. As you can see there is a smoothed transition automatically
added between the keys. However as this is a mechanical machine we want to have a sudden transition between the
movement represented by the keys. To do this we need to set the tangents between the keys to "linear". To do this
right click on the first key and click on the "Select Tangents to Linear" command on the toolbar (Fig. 53). Repeat the
same for each key and the end result should be as shown in Fig. 54

Fig. 53

Fig. 54
Page 20 of 31 
 
Close the curve editor and check the animation by using the play animation button and you should see the Small
Sprocket rotate CCW and CW as described. If all is well make sure to reset the time line to frame 0 before continuing.

If you previewed the animation you will note that the chain is still travelling between frame 0 and 100 so now we need
to match up the chain travel in both time and speed with the rotation of the Small Sprocket object.

Hide all objects except all the Male and Female chain links and the Small Sprocket object. Next, select all the chain
links and with all the chain links selected right click and again open the Curve Editor, select View - Zoom Horizontal
Extents Keys and you should see what is shown if Fig. 55.

Fig. 56

This shows the curves for each male and female chain link showing the percentage along the path over the first 100
frames

Select the Move Keys command from the toolbar (Fig. 57) and then drag a window to enclose all of the keys at the
right hand end of the curves. All the selected keys should change to white. At the bottom of the screen is a section
that shows the values for each selected key (Fig. 58). The frame value (X axis) is shown as 100, as all the keys at the
end of each curve are all at frame 100. The adjacent box is blank as each of the selected keys has a different value
for the percentage along the curve variable (Y axis). Change the frame number value to 250 for each of the selected
keys. Now select all the keys at the left end of the curves and change the frame value to 150 for all these keys. This
offsets all the curves by 150 frames which allows for the first 5 seconds of animation with no movement while
maintaining the same gradient of each curve.

Fig. 57 Fig. 58

The Curve Editor should now be as Fig. 59.

Page 21 of 31 
 
Fig. 59

The actual travel speed of the chain is determined by the gradient of the chain link curves as shown in Fig. 59. We
first need to determine what the correct speed of the chain needs to be and then adjust all of the chain link curves to
be the correct gradient to reflect this chain speed.

In this instance the formula to calculate the chain speed is as follows:

Chain Speed = RPM x T x P

RPM = drive sprocket revolutions per minute

T = number of teeth on drive sprocket
P = chain link pitch in mm (distance from the centre of one chain Male Link to the centre of the next Female Link)

RPM = 10
T = 18
P = 16

This gives the chain speed as follows:

Chain Speed = RPM x T x P

Chain Speed = 10 x 18 x 16

Chain Speed = 2880 mm/min

We now know the required chain speed in mm/min. Now we need to relate this to number of frames:

Chain Speed in mm/s = 2880/60 = 48mm/s

At 30 frames per second this gives 48/30 = 1.6mm. So for each frame of animation the chain should advance along
the path by 1.6mm.

In the Curve Editor the chain speed is graduated in "% along path". We therefore need to determine what percentage
1.6mm is in relation to the total length of the chain path. To find the total length of the chain path we can go back to
the AutoCAD file we created earlier a simply check the properties of the Chain Path polyline (Fig 60.)

Page 22 of 31 
 
Fig. 60

if we round off the length of the chain path to 800mm then:

(1.6/800) x 100 = 0.2%

Therefore, for each frame of animation, the chain advances 0.2% along the path. We can now start to modify the
chain link curves in the Curve Editor. Firstly, to make sure the calculations are correct and the desired animation is
created I shall concentrate on one chain link only. I selected the object Male Link 21 and the Small Sprocket and hid
all other objects (Fig. 61). As Male Link 21 is at roughly the 3 o'clock position at the start of the sprocket movement
(frame 150) using this should give me a good indication of how the full chain will look when finished.

Fig. 61

Selecting Male Link 21 and opening the Curve Editor (Fig. 62) we can see that the two keys on this curve have the X
and Y values as follows:

Key 1 - (150, 84)

Key 2 - (250, 184)

To change the gradient of this curve to match the correct chain speed we have calculated we need to change the Y
value of Key 2.

For 1 frame the chain will advance 0.2%.

So for the 100 frames between Key 1 and Key 2 the chain should advance by:

100 x 0.2% = 20%

So Key 1 Y value = 84%, plus 20% gives a new Key 2 Y value of 104%. Change the Y value of Key 2 from 184% to
104% changes the curve to that as shown in Fig. 62.

Page 23 of 31 
 
Fig. 62

If you close the Curve Editor and run the animation from frame 150 for a few frames we can check the speed of the
chain compared with the rotation of the sprocket. You should find that the movement of Male Link 21 and the rotation
of the Small Sprocket now match up nicely.

Ok, now we need to extend this curve over the full animation but make sure that we maintain the same gradient. In a
similar manner as we did for the Small Sprocket we can determine the required information to get the full curve for
Male Link 21:

Key Number X Y
1 150 84
2 2340 84 +((2340-150) x 0.2) = 522
3 4530 (43884 - ((4530-2340) x 0.2) = 84

As you can see we need to add a third key to the curve to complete the CW reverse rotation part of the animation.
Adding this key to the curve editor and setting the correct values should give you the curve as shown in Fig. 63. Make
sure that the tangents between the keys are set to linear.

Page 24 of 31 
 
Fig. 63

If you now close the Curve Editor and run the animation from frame 150 you can see the single chain link Male Link 21
now following the chain path at the correct speed.

However we have a total of 50 chain links of course! Now I suspect that there is a quick and efficient method for
making the changes to all 50 curves in the curve editor, however, if there is....I do not know how to do it! My method
simply involves changing each curve individually. If anyone can advise a better way to do this I would be very
interested to know how?

Anyway, for reference I will describe how I modified the rest of the curves. Again, select all of the chain links and
open the Curve Editor. We now see what is shown in Fig. 64.

Fig. 64

Page 25 of 31 
 
From the top Menu Bar select View - Zoom Region and zoom into the region as shown in Fig. 64.

Fig. 64

I shall modify each of the chain link curves in two stages: first determine the correct values for the second key of each
curve and then add the third key for each curve.

To determine the value for each of the second keys we know that the X axis value will be 2340 - i.e. the frame number
where the direction of the rotation changes from CCW to CW.

To determine the required Y axis values let's first find the actual gradient of the line we modified already for Male Link
21 between the points for Key 1 and Key 2:

For Male Link 21:

Key 1 - (150, 84)

Key 2 - (2340, 522)

  

  

   
So we have now determined that the correct gradient for each of the curves is 0.2.

Page 26 of 31 
 
If we now consider the first curve for the object Male Link we can determine the correct Y axis value by using the
equation for a straight line:

First, using the values for Key 1 for Male Link we can determine the value of c:

For Male Link

Key 1 - (150, 0)

0 0.2 ∗ 150
0 30
30

Key 2 - (2340,Y)

0.2 ∗ 2340 30
438

 Key 2 - (2340,438)

If we modify the value of Male Link Key 2 we should now see as per Fig. 65. As you can see the gradient for Male
Link 21 and Male Link curves is the same so at least we know the math was good!

Fig. 65

Page 27 of 31 
 
Fig. 66

Now that we have the value for the first link Male Link we do not need to repeat the above calculation for each of the
male and female links. Remember that the links are 2% of the path length apart, so we first set the X axis value of all
the curves to 2340 (Fig. 66) and then simply set each of the Y axis values by adding 2 % for each curve. i.e.

Curve Name Key 2 - X Value Key 2 - Y value

Male Link 2340 438
Female Link 2340 440
Male Link 01 2340 442
Female Link 01 2340 444
Male Link 02 2340 446
Female Link 02 2340 448
Male Link 03 2340 450
Female Link 03 2340 452
Male Link 04 2340 454
Female Link 04 2340 456
Male Link 05 2340 458
Female Link 05 2340 460
Male Link 06 2340 462
Female Link 06 2340 464
Male Link 07 2340 466
Female Link 07 2340 468
Male Link 08 2340 470
Female Link 08 2340 472
Male Link 09 2340 474
Female Link 09 2340 476
Male Link 10 2340 478
Female Link 10 2340 480
Male Link 11 2340 482
Female Link 11 2340 484
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
Male Link 24 2340 534
Female Link 24 2340 536

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Once all the Key 2 values have been changed you should have what is shown in Fig. 67.

Fig. 67

Now we need to add Key 3 to each of the curves with an X axis value of 4530 (Fig. 68) and then change the Y axis
value to be the same as the relevant Key 1 Y value.

Fig. 68

Page 29 of 31 
 
Fig. 69

When all the values have been set the curves should look like Fig. 69.

The only thing left now is to set up the animation for the Large Sprocket. The Small Sprocket has 18 teeth and the
Large Sprocket has 36 teeth giving a ratio of 1:2. Therefore the Large Sprocket will rotate at half the speed of the
Small Sprocket - i.e. 5RPM.

Therefore enter the following values in the Curve Editor in the same manner we did for the Small Sprocket object.
Remember that the large sprocket had an initial rotation offset of 4.5°.

5 RPM = 5/60 rev per sec = 0.0833.....

  1 second = 0.0833... x one revolution

= 0.0833... x 360°
= 30°

  30 frames = 30° of rotation

  1 frame = (30/30)° of rotation

  1 frame = 1° of rotation

So I now know that for each frame of animation the Large Sprocket should rotate 1°. Using the frame numbers I
calculated before based on the timings, I can calculate the total number of degrees required for the Small Sprocket
object as follows:

From frame 150 to 2340 = 2190 frames

 Total degrees CCW = 2190 x 1

= 2190°

From frame 2340 to 4530 = 2190 frames

 Total degrees CW = 2190 x 1

= 2190°
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 Key Number X Y
1 0 4.5
2 150 4.5
3 2340 (4.5 + 2190) = 2194.5
4 4530 (2194.5 - 2190) = 4.5
5 4680 4.5

Enter these key values into the Curve Editor for Large Sprocket and again ensure that teh tangents are set to linear
and the cure should be as shown in Fig. 70.

Fig. 70

Now close the Curve Editor and run the animation and all should be well.

This completes my method for creating a chain and sprocket set. As I have mentioned, I am sure there are many
better methods for doing this, this is just a record of my method which I hope may be of some use to anyone trying the
same.

You can find a sample of the animation at the following URL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHN3EprOw-w

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