Blender Add-On That Generates Adjustable Chains in Seconds

PeakDreams Studio's Chain Generator is an add-on that allows you to pick from 253 ready-to-use chains and drop them anywhere in your Blender project. You can browse all the chains by category and see each of them in the preview. There are numerous jewelry-inspired chains, delicate lace-like decorative chains, and rough industrial chains with spikes. 

Each chain is a real, optimized mesh, which means you can rig and animate it instead of only using it for static scenes. You can also change the curve once it's been generated by selecting it and tweaking it in Edit mode. Plus, by adjusting Offset, you can move the chain closer to or farther away from the surface you put it onto. Scale controls the size of each individual link in the chain. Through Tilt, you can rotate the chain around its axis so it doesn't look perfectly glued on.

You will see one more unfamiliar setting in the parameter window – Sag. With Sag, you can create hanging chains for a more dynamic feel. Sag Amount is responsible for how far down your chain goes. Sag Count determines the number of attachment points for your chain to hang off of. Sharp Top makes these attachment points sharp, which can be useful in some cases, but might distort the geometry of the chain, depending on which style you pick and how extreme the sharpness level is.

The add-on has two modes for drawing your chains: View Plane and Surface. With the first one, you can draw the chain directly from the viewport by selecting the design, clicking Draw, and doodling the desired shape. With the second one, you can do the same thing on any selected surface in your project: click Draw and drag the cursor across the object to generate the chain instantly. 

Watch PeakDreams Studio's video to learn more about the add-on and how to use it.

Chain Generator is available on Gumroad, check it out.