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By allowing you to customize and save your stan-

dard and parts library congurations, the various

template types help you to optimize your workows.

Drawing templates can save you time not only in

creating new drawings, but also in the standardiza-

tion o existing drawings such as those rom 3rd

parties. Screw connection templates leverage your

existing design data, allowing you to standardize

on common components used within your designs.Read on to learn a ew tricks with templates that

will allow you to re-use your work rom yesterday to

boost your productivity today.

Another Use for Drawing Templates

Templates; the last time I mentioned this word in

ront o a bunch o users, I got a mixed reaction

everything rom nodding heads and smiles to blank

looks. Thankully, those blank looks quickly became

Ah! So thats how its done! looks, as soon as they

saw a template used to update an existing drawings

standard.

Thats right, AutoCAD Mechanical templates

theyre not just or new drawing creation anymore!Templates can also be used in conjunction with

AMSETUPDWG to update standard settings within

existing drawings; those created by contractors, or

example.

When AMSETUPDWG is typed on the command

line, the rst thing youll see is a warning message

telling you that the operation cannot be undone.

Once thats understood, on the command line, enter

your templates lename including its path. Heres

the trick! Enter the tilda (~) symbol to display the

Select template drawing dialog box; saves typing

it. Youll then get the option to update layer/object

settings. Ill leave this up to you, but I normally takethe deault. And thats it; your current drawings

standard, its welding library, and a number o system

variables have all been updated according to the

settings in your template.

See how quickly AutoCAD

Mechanical can improve your

productivity with a tip rom

Andrew de Leon, AutoCADMechanical Product

Designer .

AutoCAD Mechanical Tips & Tricks

Optimize Workows with AutoCAD

Mechanical TemplatesUsers o AutoCAD Mechanical are oten amiliar with its mo

popular eatures, such as comprehensive parts libraries or

automatic machinery generators. But relatively ew users takeull advantage o the time-saving power o templates, one o t

applications hidden gems.

Tip:Setting the EXPERT system variable to 5 (0deault) removes AMSETUPDWGs warninmessage and a number o others or thatmatter. This helps i you want to automateAMSETUPDWG using a macro.

Based on the changes, some existing symbols w

update automatically. However, some may not,

your templates settings may add or remove op

or even change the revision used by these symb

Where this is the case, the existing symbol will

retained until edited. Once edited, the updated

settings are made available and the symbol get

updated based on your input.

Default Standards Template

So, as you can see, templates come in handy ev

the drawing already exists. But what about draw

that werent created in AutoCAD Mechanical? Ucan also add standards to Non-Mechanical draw

(or example, those created in basic AutoCAD

with another simple trick.

Located on the AM:Standards tab, within Optio

the Deault Standards Template setting. By de

its value is none. Thereore, when a non-Mecha

drawing is opened, AutoCAD Mechanical check

MEASUREMENT system variable and loads eith

the ANSI or ISO standard based on its value.

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AutoCAD Mechanical Tips & Tricks

Autodesk, AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, DWG, and Inventor are registered trademarks or trademarks o Autodesk, Inc., in the US

or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Occasionally, Autod

makes statements regarding planned or uture development eforts or our existing or new products and services. These stateme

are not intended to be a promise or guarantee o uture delivery o products, services, or eatures but merely reect our current

which may change. Purchasing decisions should not be made based upon reliance on these statements. The Company assumes n

obligation to update these orward-looking statements to reect events that occur or circumstances that exist or change ater th

on which they were made. Autodesk is not responsible or typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. 2008 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

o override this behavior and load your custom

tandard rom the drawing template you use every

ay, simply open your drawing template and enter

s lename (including its path) to the Deault

tandards Template setting. Then, save and close

our template. Clicking the Browse... button makes

his a little easier.

Once congured, whenever you open a non-

Mechanical drawing, AutoCAD Mechanical will

oad the active standard rom the drawing template

ntered; your custom standard rom your drawing

emplate. Thats all there is to it. You dont have

o do anything extra to the drawings standard. All

ymbols, layers, the BOM, parts list, and balloons

will be automatically setup and ready to go!

crew Connection Templates

ets ace it, where would we be without screw

onnections in not only mechanical engineering,

ut in engineering in general? And because

crew connections are so widely used, AutoCAD

Mechanical has a Screw Connection wizard. It allows

ou to select a screw (or bolt), 2 washers, 2 holes (1

or each plate), another 2 washers, a nut, a lock nut

nd even a cotter pin i you select the right bolt and

hen place it using the correct representation. But

ow many o you know that you can save your screw

onnection selections as templates and then simply

oad the template next time you need it?

To create a screw connection template, make the

screw connection selection like you normally would

(using the Screw Connection wizard), or i you have

an existing connection, use AMPOWERRECALL to

retrieve the selection. However, instead o clicking

Next, click the Back button. The wizard goes back

one step and displays a list o the sample templatesalong with their selection. Click the Save button in

the bottom right corner to save your selection as

a new template. Once saved, it can be renamed by

right clicking it in the list and selecting Rename rom

the context menu.

To load a screw connection template, use

AMSCREWMACRO2D and simply double click

on the template you need to use. The selection is

loaded into the selection step o the wizard and all

you need to do is select the right size, its placement

within the design and the representation (normal,

hidden (with lines), hidden (no lines) or sectional).

For all the advanced users out there who want

know where the screw connection templates ar

stored, they are stored in the AMSCT.GDB text

le located in the Acadm\Ge\Gdb\ subolder.

AutoCAD Mechanical 2008, and on my comput

this is the ull location - C:\Program Files\Auto

Acadm 2008\Acadm\Ge\Gdb\amsct.gdb. Byhaving your screw connection templates stored

in a separate le, they (the le) can be distribut

throughout your company ensuring consistency

across designs.

Wrap-up

AutoCAD Mechanical sotware is AutoCAD or

manuacturing, purpose-built to accelerate the

mechanical design process. Its comprehensive

libraries o standards-based parts and tools or

automating common design tasks ofer signic

productivity gains over basic AutoCAD sotwar

Now, using the power o templates, you can

compound those productivity gains and maxim

the return on your design eforts.