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I want to simulate and test set of 2D designs that basically have pulley/gear/chain-linked systems under Gravity (For e.g. to check how a pulley would rotate given particular weights, of course I'm not talking about such small systems, but systems where different pulleys/gears/weights are linked together).

[Frictional/mechanical properties can be neglected for my purposes]

Can anyone recommend any softwares (Opensource/paid) that can be used to easily design pulleys, gears, some chains(for e.g. to link a pulley to a gear) and simulate their behavior when the system is placed in a gravitational field?

I can construct the physical replicas of the designs and test them but it's rather cumbersome and a waste of resources to do so. Your help is much appreciated.

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If this finds no answer here, maybe the mathematicians (if any other site) have an idea. They are interested in such mathematical physics topics too and probably know software to calculate stuff. – Dilaton Dec 12 '12 at 9:59
Thank you, for the suggestion. I'll post here the solution if I find it. – Nein Dec 12 '12 at 10:20
I'm looking for software that is much like SolidWorks . SolidWorks has a gravity simulation in it, but I'm not sure if it will serve my purpose as it maybe primarily designed for Mechanical Engineering designs. – Nein Dec 12 '12 at 10:22
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This question has multiple issues. First, it is an open-ended "shopping recommendation" type question, asking for software recommendations. Such questions are discouraged network-wise, and generally closed as Not Constructive. Secondly, it is off topic – Manishearth♦ Dec 12 '12 at 10:56
@Manishearth > It is not "open-ended" as such software hardly exist for the sole purpose mentioned hence not exactly a shopping recommendation but rather like asking professionals out there with experiences in the field if there at all exists any such software. (I did say opensource! paid only came up because I did not want a valid answer to be missed out.) – Nein Dec 12 '12 at 14:16
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closed as not constructive by Manishearth♦ Dec 12 '12 at 10:50

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Well, there's the "Easy Java Simulations" (EJS). It's open source and very intuitive. You don't need to know Java to use it. I don't know, though, if it's good for big systems, but since it's written in Java it should handle it quite well.

It can be downloaded from here and you can also check some examples in that website.

Well for more complex things, Mathematica.

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