Hi Jim,
For your first question regarding animating a chain, you might want to look into using a physics plug-in written by Steffen Gross (see this topic: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...hl=physics&st=0)
I'm not sure if that link will go to the right topic, but you can do a search for 'physics' and it should come up.
There is a sample on his web page that shows a chain. (It's about the seventh on down on his samples page.)
Chris