Full use of Mechanical

[SEANT]

This is new. How many of us out there are using Autocad Mechanical's extended features?

[GE13579]

I'm sure I use nowhere near the full extent, but I certainly use a few of the "_am*" commands...

[neekcotrack]

What extended features?

[GE13579]

Some examples, any command beginning "_am", any of the tabs in Options beginning "AM:", any of the Power commands (I think), including Power Snap Configurations... etc...

[rkent]

This is new. How many of us out there are using Autocad Mechanical's extended features?

Very few, most of the time I open up in plain autocad. If I need 3D I go to Inventor.

[kakody1]

I have seen some videos at the autodesk website and realised that i don' t know how to use the autodesk mechanical at the minimum!
Although because i need to make more 3d designs i am oriented to learn invertor or solidworks!
But i haven' t desided yet!

[JoeC]

We began using Mechanical for its BOM (Bill of Material) capabilities. We mainly do plant layouts of our equipment, and its great to have a BOM "inventory" of all of the machines in our layout. Part numbers, prices, materials, descriptions can all be customized in your BOM.

[Weatherman]

JoeC, I reacently moved to ACAD Mech 2009 and it sound like you are doing the same application I do. We generate pricing based on an "inventory" of machines in our building layouts. I am in our final stages of nailing down a drawing process, but…I am having problems with blocks containing (2) dynamic actions and a part reference, being pulled from a tool palette, populating quantities in the BOM of a new drawing. I disabled object properties, to cut down on the # of layers, and I don't have a need for Mechanical structure. Has anyone had any problems with part references not quantifying?

[JoeC]

Yes, Weatherman, I did have some issues early in our transition to Mechanical with quantities. It seemed that if I "dragged" the blocks from the palette (rather than clicking and clicking) into the drawing, the quantity wasn't always accurate.

I also remember some issues with inserting the parts list before I had all of the blocks placed in the layout. The quantities always worked best if the parts list was inserted last.

We've corrected all of this now through some outside programming, but I'll check my old notes to see if I had a definite fix. Stay tuned.

[Weatherman]

I have the parts list all ready inserted into my drawing template. I will try inserting it when I am done. Thanks, I'll stay tuned

[Weatherman]

Tried inserting the parts list last. Actually, the qty's aren't adding up in the <MAIN> BOM of the drawing. I think I am OK with the Parts List because whatever calculates in the BOM, also calculates in the parts list.

[JoeC]

This discussion should have probably been started in a new thread to search it easier, but...

A quote from my Autodesk tech support from a while back -

"Autodesk Subscription
Joe,
Thanks for your update, I can only suggest to add the parts list last at this point. This appeared to be an issue that was logged against 2005 or 2006 version. The good news if that development addressed the issue in 2007. I do not have a or any more suggestions and appreciate your patience with this issue. At this point I will close out this case.
Best Regards,
Autodesk Support Team"

Since you are using 2009, I would think that this problem was resolved based on the comment above.

I'm sure we have some smarter folks than me in this forum who can offer a suggestion. It may be a good idea to post this to Autodesk support also.

Sorry I can't be of more help. Good Luck!

[duty]

I use the news Autocad Mechanical's .