The Belt and Chain command is an advanced assembly feature that is great for easily connecting components together such as pullies or gears. In this week’s Video Tech Tip, we’ll walk you through the process of using these large assembly commands in SOLIDWORKS.

The Belt and Chain command can be found under Assembly Features and it’s useful for calculating the belt length and range of motion of components.

In the example below, we’ve got three components that can be connected to a belt easily. The difficulty comes in calculating an accurate length. This is where the true power of the Belt and Chain command lies. If you’re not sure what length you need to connect your components, you can let SOLIDWORKS do the heavy lifting for you to get the perfect belt or chain length. Using the command, you can pick edges and faces of those components.

Here, you can see a preview of how the belt would connect your components.

It’s so easy to use this command to create a belt and connect your components. You can assign a belt thickness and SOLIDWORKS calculates the path and thickness to give you the belt length. You want to have the Engage belt option turned on so you can test the range of motion of your components.

There are always new things to learn about SOLIDWORKS. Sharpen your skills and learn new tricks with our different training courses.