Linkage — The Complete Guide: Sketch and Animate Linkage Mechanisms for Free
Linkage is a program for quick design of linkage mechanisms. It works like a vector drawing program: you draw links, pivots and sliding connectors, then start the animation in the same window to see the motion.
Linkage
David M. Rector
Sketch and animate planar linkage mechanisms — to study motion paths, speeds, gears and cams.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Fast sketching — links, pivots and sliding connectors in a few clicks.
- Gears, chains and cams — going beyond simple bar linkages.
- Point paths — see the curve that each point traces.
- Speeds — showing how fast points move through the cycle.
- Video recording — save the animation for presentations or teaching.
Licence and limitations
Linkage is freeware, free for any use including professional work — but it is not open source: the source code has not been published. The author only asks that it not be sold or redistributed through unofficial sites; donations are optional. It runs on Windows, and a Mac version is in preview.
Related tools
For constraint-based sketching and mechanism checks — SolveSpace. For full multibody dynamics — MBDyn. For geometric demonstrations in teaching — GeoGebra.
SolveSpace
SolveSpace Project
Lightweight parametric modeller with a strong constraint solver, for mechanical parts and mechanisms.
Get it from the vendor
MBDyn — Multibody Dynamics
Politecnico di Milano
Solver for the dynamics of multibody mechanical systems, including flexible bodies and aeronautical systems.
Get it from the vendor
GeoGebra
GeoGebra
Graphing, geometry, CAS and 3D calculator in one place — for quick checks of functions, geometry and symbolic calculations.
Get it from the vendor
Exudyn
Johannes Gerstmayr (University of Innsbruck)
Flexible multibody dynamics simulation — rigid and flexible bodies, reduced finite element models and robotics, in Python.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
Linkage is a quick, pleasant tool for the concept stage of machine design and for teaching kinematics — free, though not open source.