In continuation of my look at AutoCAD Mechanical I’m going to continue selling you on the benefits of using AutoCAD Mechanical, especially in a mechanical / manufacturing area of design and detailing

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A few years back Autodesk commissioned an independent study exploring the advantages of using AutoCAD Mechanical over vanilla AutoCAD. The study looked at 10-common challenges exploring the time and effort to complete each task in AutoCAD and AutoCAD Mechanical. What they found was the same tasks were completed 65% faster using AutoCAD Mechanical.

  • Drafting and annotation tasks are 55% faster.
  • Design and engineering tasks are 85% faster.
  • Risk of errors was greatly reduced because of a 60% reduction in number of commands used.

The study also showed that placing dimensions with AutoCAD required twice as much time as with AutoCAD Mechanical, which really highlights one of the biggest advantages of using AutoCAD Mechanical… Annotations!

Power Dimensions

AutoCAD Mechanical’s Power Dimensions are

  • one command with all the dimension options (linear, aligned, diameter, radius, etc.)
  • smart and understand their spatial relationship with one another
  • quick and easy to be modified


AutoCAD Mechanical provides additional dimension commands for creating multiple dimensions and for merging / splitting dimensions. It’s difficult to explain all the options and features when it comes to dimensions. The best thing is to dive in and explore everything that is there. All dimension features are conveniently located in one ribbon panel

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Mechanical Symbols

Using the built-in AutoCAD Mechanical symbol tools you can quickly create standards-based surface texture symbols, datums, geometric dimensioning and tolerance symbols, targets, weld symbols, and notes. The bonus, after placed, they can be modified quickly via a double-click. They are also treated as an annotation meaning the AutoCAD Mechanical scale will adjust the size of these just like dimensions

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Hole Tables

AutoCAD Mechanical Hole Charts create a table showing the type of hole, quantities, and coordinate values (based on your selected datum). The Format is controlled via the Standards

Autodesk University

If this has peaked your interest and you are attending Autodesk University this year come check out my class on AutoCAD Mechanical. Its a one-hour lecture called the “ABC’s of AutoCAD Mechanical” in which we will bring a new level of productivity to your AutoCAD work. You can register for Autodesk University at http://au.autodesk.com/, my class is MA2870 – The ABC’s of Autodesk® AutoCAD® Mechanical

THE OTHER POSTS IN THE SERIES:

Why should you use AutoCAD Mechanical? Part 1

Why should you use AutoCAD Mechanical? Part 2

Why should you use AutoCAD Mechanical? Final

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