AutoCAD
Mechanical 2007
In
AutoCAD Mechanical, 2D mechanical structure creates a more intuitive mechanical
design environment in which individual lines, arcs, and circles combine
to form parts and assemblies. Mechanical structure functionality gives
you a comprehensive suite of tools for organizing, storing, and reusing
designs. These innovative design tools reduce both detailing time and the
amount of editing required because changes to one part ripple throughout
the structure. And since this kind of associativity works throughout the
design, the same applies to the bill of materials (BOM) and other reports.
When a part moves, the associated screws, nuts, and bolts move with it.
With mechanical structure, you work more intuitively and efficiently in
a design environment that enables you to easily express and revise design
intent.
Associative
2D Hide—ENHANCED
Ramp
up your productivity by defining simple foreground and background selections
that automatically redraw geometry to show hidden or dashed lines of parts
that are obstructed by other parts in your design. These hidden lines also
automatically update when changes occur, virtually eliminating the time
required to manually redraw geometry due to iterative changes. It warns
you of potential geometrical errors and provides a graphical workflow that
can update entire assemblies. For the first time in 2D, identical parts
can have different geometrical appearances when in hide situations—but
if you need to change the design or get an accurate count for the parts
list, AutoCAD Mechanical remembers they are still identical parts. This
means you spend less time and effort updating your 2D structure-based designs.
Browser—ENHANCED
Linked
to the BOM database and part of the software’s 2D mechanical structure,
the browser in AutoCAD Mechanical provides a graphical interface that enables
you to visually organize design data into logical parts and assemblies.
Contextual menus provide easy access to edit properties (color, visibility,
BOM data), sort or rename components, and add, create, or reuse parts and
assemblies. The browser’s drag-and-drop functionality allows for easy restructuring
of design data to better match design intent and reduce the risk of production
errors and delays.
Shaft
Generator
Another
great time-saver, the shaft generator creates drawing views of solid and
hollow shafts. This feature alone can save you countless hours of drawing,
especially as you make small, iterative changes to improve your design.
Features commonly found in shafts—including center holes, chamfers, grooves,
profiles, wrench fittings, and standard parts (bearings, gears, retaining
rings, and seals)—are quickly created as well. Generate automatic side
views of the shaft from the front view, and changes that you make in any
view are automatically reflected in the others.
Spring
Generator
The
spring generator is a fast, easy, and valuable tool that enables you to
select, calculate, and insert compression springs, extension springs, torsion
springs, and Belleville spring washers in a design. You control the representation
type of the spring, and you can create a specification form to incorporate
in the drawing. The spring calculator even helps you select the right spring.
Belt and
Chain Generator
Automating
the generation of drive systems can save you hours, if not days, of work.
The drive system generator makes it easy to create chain and sprocket as
well as belt and pulley systems, calculate optimal lengths for chains and
belts, and insert these assemblies into your design. Simply select your
belts and chains from the standard libraries to get started.
Cam Generator
The
AutoCAD Mechanical cam generator makes the design of linear, circular,
and cylindrical cams quick and easy. And with the time you save in design,
you’ll have more time to study crucial aspects of the cam’s functionality.
The cam generator creates cams based on the input border conditions that
you set. Cam followers are generated and used in the design. Cam follower
data representing the follower’s position, size, and direction of movement
is also included. Acceleration and jerk, as well as the cam curve path,
can be calculated and displayed. You can couple driven elements to the
cam and create CNC (computer numerical control) data via the curve on the
path.
Power
Snaps
AutoCAD
Mechanical includes five task-based sets for object snaps, as well as many
more options for selecting specific geometry than standard AutoCAD software
offers. Quickly choose the snap setting that works best for the task at
hand, reducing the tedium of model space selection.
Configuration
and Setup Guide—NEW
Use
this guide to make informed decisions about available options when configuring
and setting up AutoCAD Mechanical for the first time. To simplify the transition
from basic AutoCAD® software to AutoCAD Mechanical, the guide includes
information about basic design workflows and a detailed feature comparison
chart.
Software
Development Toolkit—ENHANCED
These
tools provide the capability to customize and combine features in AutoCAD
Mechanical, and achieve higher levels of productivity. The application
programming interface (API) provides information to customize and automate
individual features or combinations of features, and includes all new API
documentation and sample scripts. A full suite of mechanically focused
APIs extends the core AutoCAD capability and includes comprehensive coverage
of the most advanced features available with 2D mechanical structure. Both
the C++ API interface and Microsoft® Visual Basic®/COM are offered.
Screw
Connections
Another
major time-saver in AutoCAD Mechanical is the ability to design whole fastener
assemblies at once. Pick the type of screw, and the software presents the
right sizes for nuts, washers, and holes. Indicate where the fastener is
to go, and there you have it—the entire fastener assembly inside the appropriate
hole. When you input loads for each connection, the intuitive user interface
helps you determine whether your selection is a feasible design.
2D Structural
Steel Shapes
By
using pre-drawn geometry, you minimize time-consuming catalog searches
and create your designs more quickly and accurately. AutoCAD Mechanical
contains more than 11,000 pre-drawn standard structural steel shapes that
you can quickly drag into any design; these include common structural shapes
such as U-shape, I-shape, T-shape, L-shape, Z-shape, rectangular tube,
round tube, rectangular full beam, and rectangular round beam.
2D Standard
Parts, Features, and Holes—ENHANCED
When
you’re dealing with machinery that contains hundreds or thousands of parts,
you could take days, even weeks, to draw them from scratch. AutoCAD Mechanical
changes that by providing more than 700,000 pre-drawn, standards-based
parts that you can select for your designs. The list includes screws, nuts,
washers, pins, rivets, bushings, and many other commonly used components.
There are 100,000 pre-drawn standard features like undercuts, keyways,
and thread ends. When you incorporate these into a design, the feature
cleans up the area in which it was inserted, so you don’t have to edit
it manually. AutoCAD Mechanical also contains more than 8,000 pre-drawn
holes, including through, blind, and oblong holes. And the holes clean
up the area where they are placed just as the standard features do.
Hole Charts—ENHANCED
The
hole chart feature makes detailing and documenting the design of large
machines and complex machine parts easier, faster, and far more accurate
than doing them by hand. Simply place holes in the design, and the software
automatically generates hole charts that display detailed design information,
including machining instructions. Dynamic highlighting enables you to ensure
that all holes needed for the chart are accurately represented. After the
chart is placed, it remains dynamically linked to the design—any change
to the model is automatically reflected in the charts. Filtering capabilities
enable you to separate different hole sizes into different hole charts
for streamlined manufacturing processes.
IGES Translator
Use the
built-in IGES Translator to improve the accuracy of data shared with team
members on different CAD systems. With AutoCAD Mechanical you can import
and export drawings into the industry-standard IGES (Initial Graphics Exchange
Specification) format so that all team members have access to project data
regardless of the CAD system they’re using.
Moment
of Inertia, Deflection, and Load Calculations
Built-in
engineering calculators reduce design time and eliminate the tedium of
many manual calculations. Instantly generate many different sets of calculated
graphs and tables for screws, bearings, cams, and shafts with minimal additional
input. Quickly perform engineering calculations such as a moment of inertia
of a cross section or deflection of a profile with given forces and supports.
Construction
Lines
The
expanded set of construction lines available in AutoCAD Mechanical greatly
reduces time spent creating geometry and aligning drawings. Construction
lines are automatically placed in their own color and layer group, clearly
distinguishing them from design geometry.
2D FEA
Analysis
Use
the 2D finite element analysis (FEA) feature to quickly identify potential
areas of failure on designs and analyze their integrity under various loads,
thereby avoiding costly field maintenance later. Don’t be fooled by how
easy it is to use; the 2D FEA feature is a powerful tool for determining
the resistance capability of an object put under a static load. You can
then add movable and fixed supports to the part to be analyzed, as well
as stress points, lines, and areas.
Fit Lists
Fit
lists linked to your design data help reduce errors and keep your team
productive. As you add special fit information to your design, the fit
list table stays in sync and updates automatically so your fit lists are
always accurate.
Autodesk
Inventor Associativity for Parts and Assemblies—ENHANCED
Use
AutoCAD Mechanical to detail and document native Autodesk Inventor®
parts and assemblies. By documenting Autodesk Inventor models (IAM, IPT)
in the AutoCAD Mechanical environment, you drastically reduce time-consuming
translation workflows and shave time off your production schedule. Just
open AutoCAD Mechanical and browse through Autodesk Inventor files, choose
a file, and AutoCAD Mechanical creates a new drawing linked to the Autodesk
Inventor file. Incorporate design revisions quickly and easily through
the associative link—the software automatically notifies you of changes
to the Autodesk Inventor file and regenerates the 2D drawing, including
any changes. Visualize design intent by shading and rotating solid models,
and review other attributes associated with the Autodesk Inventor design.
And now AutoCAD Mechanical users can control the visibility of certain
parts in an Autodesk Inventor assembly, providing more flexibility and
helping to ensure a design is correctly documented for production. Information
stored in Autodesk Inventor models is automatically available to the BOM
database in AutoCAD Mechanical, so it’s fast and easy to add balloons and
annotations.
Power
Dimensions—ENHANCED
With
the powerful dimensioning tools in AutoCAD Mechanical, you can create dimensions
using abbreviated dialog boxes to control only the relevant dimension variables.
This advanced dimensioning method adheres to standards, which makes adding,
deleting, and editing dimensions of parts and assembly drawings quick and
easy. With automatic dimensioning, you can create multiple dimensions with
minimal input, resulting in instant groups of ordinate, parallel, or symmetric
items that are appropriately spaced. Smart dimensioning tools force overlapping
dimensions to automatically space themselves appropriately while integrating
tolerance and fit list information into the design.
Dimension
Stretch—ENHANCED
Now it’s
easy to update designs to specific sizes and shapes. Simply change the
dimension values, and the geometry of a design resizes accordingly. For
complex designs, use multiple selection windows to choose exactly which
geometry should be changed by the dimension value.
Annotations—ENHANCED
Forget
about drawing symbols from scratch or referencing old static block libraries
of symbols. AutoCAD Mechanical includes drafting tools to create standards-based
surface texture symbols, geometric dimensioning and tolerances, datum identifiers
and targets, notes, taper and slope symbols, and weld symbols. Use the
settings to automatically scale the symbols to your design. Even better,
when you are annotating standard parts and features, the software automatically
creates note fields and updates them as the design changes.
Standards-Based
Design—ENHANCED
Multiply
your productivity with tools that help you and your team deliver consistent,
standards-based design documentation. AutoCAD Mechanical supports ANSI,
BSI, CSN, DIN, GB, ISO, and JIS drafting environments. Adhering to a standard
environment helps your team maintain a common form of communication for
consistent production results.
Title
Blocks and Revision Blocks
Get
your company drawings started quickly with uniform title and revision blocks.
AutoCAD Mechanical includes a full set of configurable title and revision
blocks in both English and metric units. Customize these blocks with company-specific
information, and then make them available throughout your organization
for consistency in drawing deliverables.
Help
System Tutorials, Show Me Animations, Explanations, and Examples—ENHANCED
Jump-start
your understanding of the most popular features in AutoCAD Mechanical with
animations and tutorials that make it easy to learn the software. The AutoCAD
Mechanical help system offers a variety of learning mediums, including
workflow-based tutorials, feature animations, and in-depth examples.
Associative
Detailing Tools
Because
a design or plan is just a starting point for further refinements, fast
editing and updating are crucial to your productivity. After the initial
creation of a feature, the AutoCAD Mechanical drafting tools retain the
original operation so you don’t have to edit from scratch. For example,
to edit the size of a chamfer, simply select the geometry and change the
parameters. The ability to edit previous operations makes drawing updates
fast and easy.
Autodesk
Vault Integration—ENHANCED
Integrated
with AutoCAD Mechanical, Autodesk® Vault functionality is a centralized
data-management application for workgroups that securely stores and manages
work-in-progress design data and related documents. Use it to maximize
return on your company’s investment in design data by driving design reuse.
2D Mechanical
Structure Sample Migration Tool—ENHANCED
Don’t
waste time re-creating existing data; reuse that data instead by migrating
it to 2D mechanical structure. This sample migration tool supports conversion
of blocks to mechanical structure and now includes conversion samples and
examples. Written in Microsoft® Visual Basic® for Applications
(VBA), this tool can be easily customized for the needs of individual users.
Autodesk
DWF
Autodesk®
DWF™ technology enables all team members to easily and securely view 2D
and 3D designs published directly from Autodesk manufacturing design applications.
Use Autodesk® DWF™ Composer to easily review, mark up, and print designs.
And all extended team members can use the free* Autodesk® DWF™ Viewer
application to review and print designs.
Balloons
and Bills of Materials—ENHANCED
Create
automated and associative part lists and BOMs in AutoCAD Mechanical. Specifically
developed for mechanical engineering applications, the software contains
commands to automatically create standards-based balloons and part lists
that can mirror the mechanical browser content. It supports multiple part
lists per drawing and collapsible assemblies, as well as automatic recognition
of standard parts inserted from the standards-based library. A central
database keeps track of all design data, so you can quickly add attributes
to any part of the drawing knowing that all related parts will be updated
automatically. You can export or link BOM data to manufacturing resource
planning (MRP) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Even better,
this data can be managed by Autodesk® Productstream™ software for release
management, change control, BOM management, and other more complex workgroup
tasks.
Structure
Catalog—ENHANCED
The
structure catalog is the primary tool for reusing mechanical structure
between drawings. Highly flexible file searching capabilities help you
locate single parts or entire drawings, which can then be inserted into
a design as external references or local copies. Quickly preview the entire
design, from the top assemblies to the smallest part, in a format that
shows top, front, and side views simultaneously. Completed drawings become
instant libraries available for linked or copied reuse. Additional integration
with Autodesk Vault software makes it easier to track file dependencies
and keep your extended team up-to-date.
Autodesk
Productstream
Your
company’s designs can be complete, accurate, approved, and released to
manufacturing in a timely and effective manner. Autodesk Productstream
software automates the release management process by managing engineering
changes and bills of materials while the engineering department maintains
control of the design data.
AutoCAD
Mechanical Product Detail
To find
out more about the complete feature set of AutoCAD® Mechanical, view
the PDF.
 AutoCAD
Mechanical Product Detail (pdf - 1815 Kb)
Viewing
the PDF file requires Adobe®
Reader®, available at no charge from the Adobe website.
Courtesy
Autodesk
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