Difference between Autocad and Mechanical

[rlc]

What are the differences between AutoCAD and AutoCAD Mechanical, Is Mechanical 2d only, can I open 3d files created in AutoCAD?

[therain247]

autocad mechanical is an add on to atuocad. it is designed to draw piping, plumbing, ducting, and electrical. it is primarily used for the design and prefabrication of building systems. then by the use of the 3d model you generate isometric views elevations and cut sections for an accurate view of what is to come. it has many commands to facilitate its purpose. one such command is the section line, you set the line it ask if you want to use it to generate a section you say yes, following that select the line, right click and tell it to generate, it ask you to select specific objects and poof it does it for you.

[therain247]

i am sorry i got a little sketchy there at the end.

i meant to say it draws the elevation view of the objects selected for you. after that you add your text and give it some touchup, and you're done.

[JDMather]

>it is designed to draw piping, plumbing, ducting, and electrical. it is primarily used for the design and prefabrication of building systems.

Huh?

[Anonymous]

Have you EVER used Mechanical?

wrote in message news:5398851@discussion.autodesk.com...
autocad mechanical is an add on to atuocad. it is designed to draw piping,
plumbing, ducting, and electrical. it is primarily used for the design and
prefabrication of building systems. then by the use of the 3d model you
generate isometric views elevations and cut sections for an accurate view of
what is to come. it has many commands to facilitate its purpose. one such
command is the section line, you set the line it ask if you want to use it
to generate a section you say yes, following that select the line, right
click and tell it to generate, it ask you to select specific objects and
poof it does it for you.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

AutoCAD Mechanical is not an add-on for AutoCAD, it
is it's own product. It is however based on AutoCAD, so all the
commands you're familiar with (if you are currently using AutoCAD) are
available. On top of this, you get an entire suite of new commands built
specifically for mechanical design and detailing; surface texture symbols,
welding symbols, parts lists and balloons, centerlines, associative detail
view creation and as JD Mather has shown, over 700,000 standard parts;
everything from clearance and tapped holes to nuts, bolts and washers to steel
shapes, roller bearings, circlips and seal rings. The best
part is, everything in AutoCAD Mechanical is based on industry
standards such as ISO, ANSI, DIN, JIS, etc. -
href="http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=4253185">http://usa.autodesk.com/...

In regards to your question; Yes, AutoCAD
Mechanical is 2D only however you can open your 3D AutoCAD files and
continue to work with them using AutoCAD's commands. As AutoCAD Mechanical
is only 2D, none of the standard parts such as holes will create 3D
features like Inventor would but once you've created views of your 3D part or
assembly, using viewports, AutoCAD Mechanical's symbols can be used to
detail the views. If you are seriously looking for a product that
would allow you to open and edit your 3D AutoCAD files, you should probably be
looking at Inventor -
href="http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=4246282">http://usa.autodesk.com/...

I hope this helps. Let me know if you'd like more
information.

Regards,

Andrew de Leon
AutoCAD
Mechanical Product Designer
Mechanical Solutions Division
Autodesk,
Inc.

<
href="mailto:rlc@oberonwireless.com">
size=2>rlc@oberonwireless.com> wrote in
message
size=2>news:5395458@discussion.autodesk.com
size=2>...

What are the differences between
AutoCAD and AutoCAD Mechanical, Is Mechanical 2d only, can I open 3d files
created in AutoCAD?

[Anonymous]

Robert Mize wrote:
> autocad mechanical is an add on to atuocad. it is designed to draw piping, plumbing, ducting, and electrical. it is primarily used for the design and prefabrication of building systems. then by the use of the 3d model you generate isometric views elevations and cut sections for an accurate view of what is to come. it has many commands to facilitate its purpose. one such command is the section line, you set the line it ask if you want to use it to generate a section you say yes, following that select the line, right click and tell it to generate, it ask you to select specific objects and poof it does it for you.

You seem to have mixed up the products. What you are speaking about
sounds more like Autodesk Building Systems, not AutoCAD Mechanical.

--

[chudinhhoang]

I am using both Mechanical and autocad 2011. I realize that in Mechanical i can't isolate or hide an object. But in Autocad 2011, I can. Who know how to isolate object in Mechanical, please answer me!

[Bob_Zurunkle]

Yanno, because Mechanical uses AutoCAD as its base program, you can go through your Windows Start menu to Programs, and choose to start AutoCAD (without Mechanical). If you do it this way instead of switching Profiles in Mechanical, then your AutoCAD commands will work like AutoCAD users are used to. Because I have a multicore processor, i have Mechanical and basic AutoCAD up and running at the same time. And yes you can draw 3D in Mechanical, but apparently not 3D parametric modeling like Inventor does.

have you tried typing Isolate on your command line?

[acwtzwegers]

AutoCAD Mechanical is a mechanical engineering version of AutoCAD, differences would be:

- easier insertion of standard drillholes, bolts, nuts, screws, I beams etc.

- easier linking of different views of the same 3D object (without a 3D drawing)

- easier creation of bill of materials, correction reports etc.

- Mechanical has a lot of "powertools" that need to get used to but can be workflow improving.

- Mechanical has it's own (practically fixed) style in accordance with DIN, ISO, ANSI, whatever... which can be seen as annoying by veteran AutoCAD users. Layers are generated by Mechanical like Mechanical likes them, you cannot osnap dimensions etc etc.

Basically: can be very handy for your business if you are in the right businesses

[Bob_Zurunkle]

...actually there's a powersnap filter setitng you can change so you can snap to dimensions etc...

[Sridhar-Autodesk]

Hi acwtzwegers,

Just an update on following points:

"Layers are generated by Mechanical like Mechanical likes them"

We can either force AutoCAD Mechanical to create mechanical entities on company standard layers or completely turn off automatic layer creation.  Please let me know if you required procedure to do this.

 "you cannot osnap dimensions"

By default, we cannot osnap dimension, however, this can be turned on using command ampowersnap>>Filter Options>>Un check "Dimension" option>>OK>>OK

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

[acwtzwegers]

Thank you both, I am aware of both possibilities. I was just pointing out differences with regular AutoCAD and how it is often experienced.

[oswaldoa]

I Work in a solar business, before in my last company I used Autocad 2012 , I moved to another company and they just have the network license for mechanical 2011. My main job is to design draw solar parks , can I have the same tools and can I do the same with Autocad Mechanical 2011?
Thanks

[oswaldoa]

I Work in a solar business, before in my last company I used Autocad 2012 , I moved to another company and they just have the network license for mechanical 2011. My main job is to design draw solar parks , can I have the same tools and can I do the same with Autocad Mechanical 2011?
Thanks

[acwtzwegers]

Oswaldoa, I am currently at a company that does something very similar: draw greenhouse layouts. (and I can asure you the simularity is quite high).

One: You can just launch the regular AutoCAD 2011 through your Start menu > Autodesk > AutoCAD Mechanical 2011 > AutoCAD 2011.

But I would highly advise you getting familiar with the workflow and functionality of AutoCAD Mechanical.

This because you can have Mechanical count your different parts for you and put them all in a bill of materials, using the partref functions.

For example: you create varied blocks with partrefs for your side bars (for example left and right and different lengths), add partrefs to them for any connected materials like screws (in large layouts we don't actually draw those) and draw your solar park as you normally would. You then add a "BOM" and it will have your parts all specified and ready for export to for example excel, erp or whatever.

[steve216586]

If you use AutoCAD Mechanical properly and work with Structured Parts and assemblies, whether you create them or use the Mechanical Content, (look through help for information about Structured parts, views, parents and orphans, etc) you can easily highlight, isolate and hide parts. The Structure Catalog enables you to do some of these functions also. There or AMSHIDE would be a good place to start.

There are also many tutorials worth viewing on the internet. If you don't have formal training or the time or ability to experiment and follow along with AutoCAD HELP, I surely recommend the tutorials. I learned AutoCAD vanilla in school but my second job involved Mechanical. After putting a few extra hours in after normal working hours I was in the Run phase of Mechanical as it related to my industry. Over the following two years, I created over 20,000 structured parts with isometric views for the company library.

Mechanical is not difficult if you are willing to be diligent and possess a drafting aptitude. And watch a few tutorials and read HELP.

[S2DL]

"Over the following two years, I created over 20,000 structured parts with isometric views for the company library."

20 000 / (365 * 2)= 27 structured parts a day !!! If take in account that the working days are 253 then the simple eq. shows that you are capable of drawing the staggering 40 parts with isometric views a day (5 parts /every working hour) !!!

Because of that-a big Kudos from me.