I have used AutoCAD Mechanical since version1 back when I was an Autodesk customer. It is a great product for 2D mechanical design work and based on AutoCAD so you get all the benefit of the familiarity and customization in addition to the suite of mechanical features.
“Now with even more intelligent drafting features for automating common design tasks, AutoCAD Mechanical offers mechanical designers and drafters significant productivity gains. New features include a streamlined design environment and bill of materials enhancements that help produce consistent results on the shop floor.”
Here are some of the highlights from my coworker and the AutoCAD Mechanical Product Manager Adam Perry.
BOM Extraction
Preserve the value in your legacy DWG drawings. With the BOM Extraction tool in AutoCAD Mechanical you can automatically generate the top level Bill of Materials and lower level parts lists while importing DWG files – whatever CAD application was used to create the original DWG file.
Easily configure the BOM Extraction tool using the wizard to map part number, part name, or other key variables before starting the import process.
Use the checker to identify potential conflicts that may exist in older drawings and then run the translation and BOM extraction as a batch process to expedite the conversion of large numbers of drawings in a continuous unattended operation.
You can even generate a range of customizable reports that can be saved in csv or txt formats to support further validation and analysis requirements by other groups such as QA or document control.
Part Publishing
Even with a library of more than 700,000 standard parts to choose from, most companies have their own set of specialized parts that gets used time and time again.
With the Part Publishing feature in AutoCAD Mechanical you can add your custom parts to the existing Content Library and have a single point of access for easy sharing of your preferred part designs.
Better still, the Part Publishing tool features a dynamic constraint manager that allows you to add intelligence to your custom parts. Use it to define parametric constraints, so that your design intent will automatically drive changes to the geometry of your parts.
An easy to use interactive environment allows you to test these constraints and confirm they display the proper behavior.
With the Part Publishing feature, AutoCAD Mechanical makes it easy to share custom content throughout your organization and helps to maintain design consistency by facilitating the use of company standard parts.
License Cascading
Cascading network licensing supports customers who need to deploy multiple Autodesk products. AutoCAD Mechanical 2010 licenses can easily be combined with licenses for AutoCAD and AutoCAD Inventor.
As AutoCAD Mechanical licenses are used, the network first chooses the standalone AutoCAD Mechanical licenses, then the Autodesk Mechanical Desktop licenses, and finally the applicable AutoCAD Inventor licenses.
For AutoCAD users who also use Mechanical , the network chooses AutoCAD first, then consumes an AutoCAD Mechanical license. The manufacturing offerings from Autodesk fit together to form a complete solution
In addition other Mechanical products from Autodesk were announced:
Autodesk Inventor family of products, AutoCAD Mechanical, AutoCAD Electrical, Autodesk Alias family of products, Autodesk Moldflow, Autodesk Navisworks, Autodesk Showcase, Autodesk 3ds Max Design and Autodesk Vault software.
Press Release: Autodesk 2010 Manufacturing Software Demonstrates Power of Digital Prototyping
