Abstract: To solve the analysis of complex assembly dimension-chains efficiently, a new method, dimensional element-chain analysis(DECA), for the assembly dimension-chain analysis is presented based on products' digital models and parameter-driven technique.Firstly, the concepts of dimensional element(DE) and dimensional element-chain(DEC) are defined, and a geometric tolerancing model expressed by DE and its semantic mapping are also given.Secondly, the construction of DEC, the geometric measuring method for the calculation of error transfer coefficients of dimension-chain components and the realization of DECA are proposed.These methods are implemented on the CATIA V5 system, and applied to analyze the assembly dimension-chain of a selected mechanism.The preliminary application shows that the DECA method is valid for assembly dimension-chain analysis.