3D drawing and 2D specs for each part?

Hello,

I'm trying to learn Autocad by myself. I used it back in college a few years ago so I have some little experience. Not a lot since all we did there was just very basic 2D stuff in R14.

I was wondering if it's possible to have the complete design of a machine in Autocad? What I mean is: design every part to the correct scale, and then generate "views" for each part as needed (with measurements, projections, sections), in different sheets. Maybe even mount the machine fully and explode it.

If it's possible, how would I do that? I've seen the Sheet Sets, Flatshot and Sectionplane commands but I'm not sure how to use them.

Is Autocad the tool for this? Or is this a job for Inventor?

While it may be possible you would be better off taking a look at Inventor instead. Just my opinion.

Definitely Inventor for outputs like this.

Of course you can do this with AutoCAD, and 2012 and especially 2013 have made this easier with the viewbase command.

But if you don't have vested experience with this, you might as well learn the next-generation tool (Autodesk Inventor) to do this if you can gain access to Inventor. Inventor has been optimized from the ground up for doing this sort of work.

I do it every day. Exploded views can be time consuming, I have only done a couple. I usually create a 3d model of my main assembly. Then I wblock out my build details into separate autocad files. From there I use solview/soldraw to create my 2d views. Lastly I add my dimensions and title block. Is autocad the best software for that type of project? In my opinion probably not. I have taken classes for Autocad, Catia, and Unigraphics. I have also had the opportunity to play with an old version of Inventor and some solidworks. All of them have things that they are good at, and somethings they need to work on. In my case, Autocad is what I have to use at work. I am pretty happy with what I have done with it. Lastly, as far as the commands you have listed. Start looking on this web board. That is what I have done when I needed some help (or Google).

Welcome to the forum.

I do this all the time with Autocad, and if I am working on an assembly with 30 parts, it definitely does get a bit tedious.

You certainly should familiarize yourself with use of the VIEWBASE functionality, as you are using 2012.

It has been improved a lot in 2013, although there are still issues.

INVENTOR does seem to do most things better than Autocad, though I have not had an opportunity to use, learn and apply it.