I have a unique problem that requires me to somehow model chain(links not roller chain) as a weldment. Read below for the Why and desired outcome:

Why?

I have created a macro that saves a CSV BOM from an assembly and saves feet of weldment material as well as inventory parts separately. The way I do it is by calculating the total feet of weldment materials and adding lines in the CSV file. This leaves me needing to have weldment profiles for every material we relieve from inventory in linear feet. The chain is something we relieve in linear feet but is not a solid profile type material. This is my only unplanned material issue so far.

Desired outcome

Something that resembles chain but is created from a weldment profile so my BOM macro processes it correctly. 

I have considered doing something super small that is basically invisible and creating an assembly with individual links that follow the part sketch and excluding all the links from the assembly BOM. This seems like a lot of work for something that could be simpler.  I am not doing renders of this stuff so just a resemblance of chain in drawings would be nice.

Anyone with a magical solution?