Wielding the Power of One AutoCAD Toolsets: Utilize Toolsets Content and Standards

VINOD BALASUBRAMANIAN: OK. Good afternoon, everyone. So I hope everybody had a good lunch. So we'll try to keep you guys awake in this class.

So today's topic is wielding the power of One AutoCAD Toolsets by utilizing the contents and standards from the toolsets. So before we go into the topic, I just want to give a short introduction about ourselves.

My name is Vinod. I'm based out of Singapore office for Autodesk. And I've been with Autodesk for almost a decade now. And I'm primarily responsible for AutoCAD Mechanical software. I'm the technical lead for AutoCAD Mechanical.

I primarily work on product health and some high quality content that you can see in Autodesk Knowledge Network. So any self-help articles that you are actually utilizing is something that we work on as a team around that.

I have another co-presenter, Sridhar, with me. I'll let Sridhar introduce himself.

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: Yeah, hello. My name is Sridhar Subramani. I'm the product owner for One AutoCAD and Toolsets. I've been working with Autodesk for the past 15 years, a frequent presenter at [? AU ?] events. Yeah.

VINOD BALASUBRAMANIAN: OK. Thanks, Sridhar. So let's talk a little bit about summary of today's class. I believe all of you guys know that from 2019, Autodesk has introduced this concept of One AutoCAD. So we're going to talk about what are those toolsets within One AutoCAD and how you can collaborate your design process using the toolset from the start to finish of your design.

So we're going to talk about four main toolsets, which is AutoCAD Architecture, how architects use AutoCAD Architecture to build their drawings. And then we're going to talk about MEP, how a building systems engineer creates a duct work, and then we're going to talk about how manufacturers can use or leverage some of the features within AutoCAD Mechanical and create bill of materials, parts lists, and some drawing views and so on.

And finally, we'll finish it off with AutoCAD Electrical. We'll just draw a simple wiring diagram for a room and then we're going to export them in from AutoCAD Electrical and bring it into other AutoCAD softwares and how you can collaborate.

So the objective of this whole class is to make sure that how you can utilize all of these tool sets and collaborate more effectively between various stakeholders. And that's what we're going to primarily focus on.

And here are the key objectives, just to outline to you guys. So we're going to talk about standard contents in AutoCAD Architecture. We're going to put some doors, walls, and windows. And then we're going to create the simple duct work through MEP, and then finally, we're going to use some [? manufacturer ?] [? components and ?] AutoCAD Mechanical and then generate some bill of materials from there, and then a wiring diagram and then bringing them in to various AutoCAD toolsets

So we are going to build a small house. And we're going to show you how we're going to do that with all these four toolsets combined, and how all these different stakeholders will be involved during the design process. So let's get started with AutoCAD Architecture.

So Sridhar is going to walk through Architecture and MEP. And then I'll go ahead and show you on Mechanical and AutoCAD Electrical.

SRIDHAR SUBRAMANI: Yeah. Thank you, Vinod.

So AutoCAD Architecture has about 8,000 objects and styles. We'll see how to convert the line work into intelligent walls. For example, you can use your sketches to draw walls, convert your walls using lines, arcs and circles. So then, once you create your walls, then you can edit the properties [INAUDIBLE] for walls.

So we can assign different industry standard styles to walls. Basically, in AutoCAD Architecture, the styles control the appearance of AutoCAD Architecture objects. Using styles, we can specify the dimensions, the components, endcaps, and materials used for the walls.

So we can also create custom walls, such as masonry walls, brick walls, or concrete walls. Let's see a quick demo on how to convert our line work into walls.

So I'll switch to AutoCAD Architecture. So we have some line work here. I have the tool palette open here.

In AutoCAD Architecture, tool palettes are extensively used to organize the styles. The tool palettes are organized with design documentation detailing. From the design panel, I'm going to select walls. I'm going to pick brick four inch wall. Right mouse click on Select Line Work.

So I'm going to pick the outer boundary of the sketch. And press Enter key. So it's prompting me to erase the line works. For now, I'm going to leave it as it is. And press Enter.

So now you can see the walls are created. However, the justification is not matching with the line work that I have created. So from the property palette here, we have the justification. I'm going to change this to Right Justification. And you can see, the line work, has adjusted with the walls.

And here you can see the style that is being used. I'll press an Enter key here. So now that we have the exterior walls created, let's see how to convert some of the interior walls.

I'm going to pick the [INAUDIBLE] wall, a four-inch wall here. Pick from the tool palette. Select line work. I want to pick the interior line work here. Pick these lines.

And press the Enter key. I'm going to press Enter again [INAUDIBLE] erasing the line work. And again, the justification is not matching here. I'm going to change the justification to Right Justification. And press the Enter key.

So if we notice here, some of the walls are not cleaned up. So I'm going to select this line as well. Right click on the [? brick for ?] wall. Convert into line work. So I've finished this one.

So I want to extend this wall to the other perpendicular wall. I'm going to select the wall here, [? lower intelligent ?] cleanup, and pick the wall. So if we notice here, the walls are automatically cleaned up.

Now imagine you're doing all this in AutoCAD. Like, how many clicks you have to do in cleaning up the walls. So there are some of the walls that are not cleaned up here as well. I'm going to pick this circular wall here. Intelligent cleanup. Cleanup with this one.

And I'm going to flip the wall direction so that it's cleaned up. So now that we have created the walls, let me change the viewing direction.

To see how the walls look in 3D, I'm going to change it to realistic view, to see the walls that we have created. Now, I'm going to change this back to plan view. Right. So now we have some walls created.

Let's see how to add some doors, windows and openings. So the doors and windows interact with the walls. And they can be inserted with any size and elevation.

In addition to that, the doors will always be anchored to the walls. Whenever you move the door-- sorry. Whenever you move the wall, that doors move with that. So let's see how to insert a few doors on the walls that we created.

So before that, I'm going to talk about the multiview blocks. So multiview block is a block which has different representations in different view directions. Mostly, the multiview blocks are used for representing furniture and fixtures like tables, your kitchen work, et cetera.

Let's see how to insert those and multiview blocks in AutoCAD Architecture. So from the tool palette, I'm going to select doors. I want to pick-- so these are all the industry standard doors that are shipped with AutoCAD Architecture.

I'm going to pick a hinged double door. I'm going to zoom into this area. Pick a point here. So if you notice here, how the door is jumping from one wall to another wall, that is it is getting anchored to the wall that I have inserted.

I'm going to pick a point here. Another here. So at any point of time, you can select the door and change the swing angle, swing direction. You can adjust the location where you have inserted the walls, and you can also change the size of the doors.

This acts like a dynamic block. So you can change the size of the doors as well. So I'm going to insert a few more doors, maybe a hinged single door. I'm going to zoom into this area. And I want to insert a single hinged door here. Maybe another door here.

So the line work is in between my work. So I'm going to switch after line work. So that I can easily place the doors.

So I'm going to pick another hinged double door insert on this wall. So now that we are inserting the doors, let's see how to insert a few windows, as well.

So in this case, I want to select a glider window and start picking the walls that we want. So I'm going to randomly insert a few glider windows. And press the Enter key.

So in addition to that, we have corner windows, as well. So imagine how much time you're going to take in inserting or creating these type of objects in AutoCAD.

So I'm going to pick two corners of the building. Right. So now we have inserted a few openings in the building. Let's see how to insert a few multiview blocks. I want to switch to the furniture palette here. I want to pick a sofa. Zoom into the living area here.

I'm going to pick a point. And here you can see, you can change the direction of the block. I'm going to pick a point here. Insert another sofa here. Maybe another sofa here. I'm going to insert another table.

So I've inserted a few blocks here. Now that in the bedroom I want to insert a queen-sized bed. However, I don't see the block available in the tool palette here. What we can do is, we can click on more tools here. So it will open up the catalog browser.

Here, there are more blocks shipped with the application. So what we can do is we can quickly search for a queen-sized bed. Once you see a tool here, you can insert this tool into the drawing.

I'm going to pick a point here. Insert the block. So let's see how this looks in the 3D view.

I'm going to change this to 2D, and then back to realistic. So all the blocks that I have inserted are 3D. Right. So I'm going to change this back to the plan view. And to realistic view again.

So now that we have inserted a few of those openings and blocks, I'm going to quickly insert a roof from the roof dropdown here. I'm going to pick a roof option, select a rectangular type of roof, pick the corners of the building here. I'm just going to zoom in to the other corner. Pick the roof here.

From the property palette, I want a double sloped roof. I'm going to set an elevation of two feet. And I'm going to adjust the slope angle. And let's see how this looks in the 3D.

And change the viewpoint. So now that we have a floor plan here, I'm going to change the viewing direction, then back to 2D wireframe.

So now that we have a typical floor plan here, so imagine you want to create your section and elevation views. So let alone modifying the floor plan and updating the section and elevation views, what is the time taken in AutoCAD? Whereas in AutoCAD Architecture, with just a few clicks of a button, we can quickly create a section view and a primary elevation view. Let's see how this works.

So I'm going to switch to the documentation group. And from the [INAUDIBLE] [? step, ?] I'm going to pick the section earmark. I want to pick a point here, outside the building. I'm going to move towards my right here and pick a point. Press the Enter key.

I'm going to pick another point on the top of the building to cover the objects that I want in the section from east to west. So you can name the section view. I'm going to insert the section view in the current drawing.

So imagine you're creating the whole section view in AutoCAD. Like, what is the time taken? So at any point of time, you can modify your floor plan and make sure the section is getting updated.

For instance, I'm going to insert maybe another door here. Press the Enter key. I'm going to select the section here and refresh this. And the door gets updated in the section view.

So now that we have created a section view, let's see how to create all my primary elevation views. From the tool palette, I'm going to pick the exterior elevation mark. I'm going to pick a point on the top left hand corner. I'm going to pick another point at the bottom right hand corner, so that all the four elevation views are covered.

So it'll automatically give you the names of the elevations at any point of time. You can modify the names. And I'm going to insert all the four elevations in the current drawing.

So it's showing you a preview here saying that there's already a view inserted here. So make sure you're not going to insert your elevation views on top of this view. I'm going to pick a point here. And it's prompting me for the second point.

This is the distance between each elevation view. I'm going to pick a point right over here and press the Enter key. That's all we need to do. With just four clicks, I was able to insert four elevation views. At any point of time, you modify your floor plan, the views will automatically get updated.

Right. So now that we have a typical floor plan. So now it's time to hand over this floor plan to our building system engineer, who wants to create some duct work. So I'll save this work.

And I'm going to switch to the presentation and see how to create some duct work. So for our building system engineer, maybe he wants to create a simple duct layout for which first he has to insert some target and source parts like diffusers and VAV units. Then I'm going to draw some duct work anywhere on the floor plan. And finally, I'm going to connect the source and target parts with the duct and duct fittings.

Let's see a quick demo how it works. So now that we have saved our architecture drawing, so I'm going to close AutoCAD Architecture. And open MEP.

This is another toolset which is shipped with One AutoCAD.

I'm going to open the floor plan that I created. Right. We have the floor plan here.

So I'm going to create some duct work in the living area here. So I'm going to switch off the roof and the furniture for some time. If you notice here, there are three dots here. That indicates that there is some [? NV ?] blocks inserted in the living room. So I'm going to change the swing direction of this door. I'm going to grip select this window, maybe drag it here. Right.

Now, I'm going to insert a source part. From the equipment dropdown, I'm going to select the VAV unit. From the VAV unit, I'm going to select [INAUDIBLE]. So here, we have about a million parts with different sizes, for one component. So [INAUDIBLE] I'm going to filter this further.

I'm going to select a size, maybe a 12 inch by 12 inch VAV unit. And I want a length about 12 inch. I'm going to insert this VAV unit at one foot height, one foot elevation.

And now if you are a building system engineer and you want to do calculations on your duct work, you can start entering your airflow. You can probably enter whatever value that you want. For now, I'm going to leave this alone.

I'm going to insert the VAV unit just outside the building and press the Enter key. So now that we have a source part, let's see how to insert a few target parts like diffusers or air terminals.

From the equipment drop down, I'm going to select the air terminal. So in this case, I want to select a perforated face round neck air terminal. And there are 14 types found. So I'm going to leave it as it is.

While inserting the air terminal, I want to insert these air terminals at a elevation of eight feet. I'm going to zoom in to this area. I'm going to pick a point in the living room. Press the enter key.

So now we can continue to insert any number of terminals that we want. And I'm going to pick another point here. Similarly, the third one under fourth one. So now that we have our source and target parts, let's see how to create some duct work in this area.

So the easiest way to create duct work is to pick the equipment. Hover over on the plus sign and you can see add a duct, or you can select the duct from the ribbon as well.

In this case, I'm going to select the VAV unit. [INAUDIBLE] the plus sign and say, Add Duct. Right. Before you pick the next point, you can notice here, from the tool palette, we have used shapes of ducts-- rectangular, round, or oval shape. In this case, I want a rectangular duct that I want to insert.

And what is the width of the duct that I want? Maybe I'm going to select a four inch by four inch duct. So it's prompting me whether I want to insert a reducer.

So I'm going to select a four inch by four inch duct. I'm going to pick a point inside the building here. So before I pick the next point, I want to increase the elevation of this duct work.

So here in the tool palette-- I'm sorry, in the property palette, you can change the elevation from one feet to maybe about nine feet. As soon as I pick the elevation, you can see our riser automatically inserted.

I'm going to pick a point here. And I want to come all the way down to the end of the room, and pick another point. So now, once you insert your duct work, the size of the duct is automatically annotated for you.

So you don't have to worry about creating another [INAUDIBLE] or a text on this duct work. Whenever you modify the size of this duct, the labels will automatically get updated for you.

So now we have created a main duct. Let's see how to connect the main duct with the air terminals that we have inserted in the drawing.

So I'm going to select the duct option here. I'm going to pick a point on the main duct. I'm going to pick a point here to create my [INAUDIBLE] duct. I want to pick the air terminal here.

And I'm going to select one of the first options in the parts here and click OK. So if you see, automatically, the next leg is a flexible duct created for you. So the software understands. So that you can specify in the two palettes what should be your terminal duct connection, whether it's a flexible or a elbow with the rigid duct.

So in this case, I want a flexible duct. So now that I've created a flexible duct, press Enter. So you can continue to insert your duct work on the remaining air terminals. I'm going to pick a point on the branch duct here. And then I'm going to connect the air terminal.

Similarly, I'm going to pick two more points to connect the remaining two air terminals. I'm going to pick another point here and then select the air terminal. Press Enter.

So now that we have created duct work, let's see how this looks in the 3D. I'm going to change the viewpoint. And you can see how we have created duct work.

So we took about less than 15 minutes in creating our whole floor plan, including a small duct work as well. In addition to the duct layout, in AutoCAD MEP, we have four more domains, like piping. You can create your piping layouts, and likewise, you can create your electrical circuits by inserting few receptacles and panels. And finally, you can create your plumbing or schematic line diagrams.

So now that we have finished our building system work, so maybe the architect wants to hand over this drawing to a mechanical engineer where he wants to continue creating the drawing views. I'll hand over to Vinod, who is going to talk about the mechanical part.

VINOD BALASUBRAMANIAN: Switch on to the-- OK.

So thank you, Sridhar. So what we are going to now discuss is how AutoCAD Mechanical and Electrical are going to work in this process.

So we're going to start with mechanical. We're going to talk about a few features here. Especially, we're going to talk about designing drawing views, and we're going to specifically talk about detail view. And then we're going to talk about bill of materials and parts list, and how you can export them across.

So one of the common things that any manufacturer would have as a headache, just before I get in, so I just want to understand in the audience, how many of you are working for a manufacturer who supplies for architectural firms?

Great. So often, the challenges between an architect and a manufacturer is, architects are worried about what is he going to throw in as an equipment. Is he going to make me to do subtle changes into my design. So they're going to often worry about what's the manufacturer going to throw him in terms of design conflicts that they have to face.

So now, how these features are going to help a manufacturer work with an architect more effectively is, with the design views, which are probably one of the powerful tools in AutoCAD Mechanical, so you can create drawing views for any complex assembly or geometry that you have.

You can bring in models from Inventor, or any 3D applications. And you can create instantaneously any drawing views that you need. So you create Standard views from top view, bottom views and side views, and you can create isometric views, and you can create detailed views and so on.

So the good thing is, these views are arranged on the layouts, and you can use viewports to control that. So it's not all over the place. You can make it more efficient and look more collaborative.

And one other thing that with design views is, these are not part of the ribbon. So you probably, when you launch the mechanical toolset, you may not be able to see that within the ribbon itself. So you have to use the command line.

So I'm a big fan of command line. But a lot of people nowadays love using ribbon. So if you want to access drawing views, you have to use this command, AMDWGVIEW, or the shortcut key, which is q. So if you hit q there, it will invoke the drawing views as well.

So then you can see the panel that on the right that you're seeing on the screen here. So there's a lot of controls here, how you're going to have your base view, how you're going to have your detail view, which layout do you want to put. So you can put it on any different layout that you have in your drawing. And then what scale you want to insert it, and do you want to show any hidden lines there for overlapping objects and so on. So you can make all these subtle changes right before you place those drawing views.

So now, why I want to talk about one specific drawing view-- so often, when a manufacturer supplies a very complex equipment, they go into discussion with an architect about where it is going to be placed, what are the design changes requirements that you need, and what's the complexity of that object, and so on.

So in order to do that, detail view helps you to enlarge a specific portion of that large assembly, and then project around it and dimension it, and provide some intelligence to it so that the architect can understand what exactly you are talking to him about changes that we need to do.

So on detail views, again, the detail views, you can create it in any layouts. You can choose-- sorry, I think it's not here. So probably in the demo I probably show you. So again, when you invoke the drawing view panel for detail view, you can place it in any layouts. And another good thing with detail view is, you can place it even in the model space or in the layout.

Say, for example, you just want to have a detail view of a specific portion of your equipment that has to be placed near to your 3D object, just to have a discussion on something. Then you can just place it in the model space, just right next to your 3D model itself.

Or if you want to put it into the layout, then you can go ahead and do that within the layout as well. Again, this, as well, is not part of the ribbon. So you have to invoke it from the command line, [INAUDIBLE] detail, or again, you can use the shortcut key, q. And then you will be able to get to the detail view.

So before I go into a demo, I just want to run through a few more stuff in AutoCAD Mechanical. And then we will take a look at everything from the Mechanical standpoint.

So another one that I want to talk about is Bill of Materials. So Bill of Materials in AutoCAD Mechanical is a database storage there. So you have a database storage of what's your components that are coming in for your assembly, what's the item, so you can see here, what's its description, what's its material, how much it's going to cost. All these details of your parts and assembly drawings will be captured into the Bill of Materials here.

So now, can I have more than one Bill of Materials for my drawing if I am bringing in a very complex assembly? I want to simplify that with multiple Bill of Materials. Yes, I can do that. You can have any number of Bill of Materials for your drawing.

And how do I invoke Bill of Materials in AutoCAD Mechanical? This feature, unlike design views, is part of the ribbon. So you can invoke it from the Annotate tab. Under the Annotate tab, you have a BOM panel. And there you can select the BOM feature to invoke it.

Or, if you are familiar with the command line, you can use AMBOM as well. And you can execute the Bill of Materials. So the only thing that I would want to highlight is, if you are working with multiple BOMs, just make sure you are on the right BOM to activate that. When you hit AMBOM, it will ask you to choose the current active BOM. And you need to make sure you are putting in the right BOM before you're going in to edit any changes to that, especially when you have multiple Bill of Materials in the same drawing.

So now, Bill of Materials is a database storage within the drawing. So actually it's not anywhere stored within your profile or anything. It's stored within the drawing.

Now, how do I bring this to the drawing? Because if I need to supply it to an architect, he's not going to run AutoCAD Mechanical. So he just wants to know the details. So how am I going to put that across?

So you have to put that through parts list. So parts lists are basically intelligent tables there, where it connects it with the Bill of Materials. So any changes you make to the Bill of Materials, that gets automatically updated into the parts list.

So imagine, if you're doing the same thing in AutoCAD, you create tables there. And then you add a component in your drawing. Then you're looking at making more rows, adding all those updates to your design that you have added, and then you have to make sure your AutoCAD table is updated, and if you are doing a data link, you need to make sure your Excel is updated as well, so that your Bill of Materials is up to date.

So in AutoCAD Mechanical, everything is connected there. So you do everything in one single click. And to create all these parts is very simple.

So there are multiple ways to create them. So once you have created your geometry, you create [? parts ?] reference. It automatically gets added into your Bill of Materials. So you don't really need to add rows and start filling in all the details, as long as the information is in your intelligent block. Then it goes into the Bill of Materials automatically.

Now again, when it comes to parts lists, these are intelligent tables here. So you can invoke this parts list from the Annotate tab as well. Or if you are not a big fan of ribbon and you love using command line, then you have a command as well, AM parts list command, that invokes the parts list.

So what you're seeing here is a preview of our parts list looks like. And like Bill of Materials, parts list as well can be edited at any given point of time. So if you want to have your own style of Bill of Materials, own style of parts list for your company, you can do that right away in the AM options. And then you can make those modifications like, OK, I want my table to have these line colors, and I want to make sure my font has to be like this. And I want to have these parts list to be in this specific layer, and so on.

So you can do all that and add them into the template. And you can utilize the template across your company, so that your parts list are in the same style and structure that you want to have.

And you can do the same thing with the BOM as well. And another thing that I really like with this is, let's say even if you have forgotten to make those changes, when you try to place this parts list within your drawing, you can make those changes right while placing the drawing itself. So there is an option to edit the parts list style, and then you can modify the style based on what you have already predefined in your company.

So it's not hard and fast that it has to be in a template. It can be changed any time while you're playing with the drawing.

OK. So we talked about how Bill of Materials works, how parts list works. So how is this going to help me collaborate with an architect?

You're talking most of these things from a manufacturer standpoint. What is architect come into play? Often, these days, architects are more like project managers. They look into every aspect of it. They work with the building design engineer, they work with the manufacturer. They work with the electrical engineer. They want to get the holistic view of what that whole project is, and how much cost, and everything will be worked out by them.

So in order for you to do that, you need to know what are the components that the manufacturer is providing, and what's that equipment cost, what's that materials that needs to be involved in.

So to do that, so what parts list and BOm helps us is, from within the parts list and BOM window, you can export that to Excel or database file formats like Access, MDB files. And you can link it back into AutoCAD Architecture.

So or even within AutoCAD as well. So with the data link, you can link it with an AutoCAD table as well. So if you want to send it to a client of yours so you can automatically link it to an AutoCAD through a data link, the good thing is, once you have linked it, whatever changes that you are making to your BOM and parts list, then it gets updated to that spreadsheet when you export. And then automatically it updates the data link in your AutoCAD drawing as well. You don't need to do multiple times all these tasks.

So let's take a quick look, since I have talked a lot about these features. Let's take a quick look how these things work in AutoCAD Mechanical.

OK. So let me go ahead and open up AutoCAD Mechanical.

OK. So I'm going to open up a drawing here. So this is a simple refrigerator that we have created for this demo. So what we're going to do is, we're going to create a drawing view here. And then we're going to put a detail view. And then we're going to look at Bill of Materials and parts list.

So I'm going to create a drawing view. Remember, we have to use the command line. So you can use AMDWGVIEW. You can type that, or you can hit the [? word ?] q. It's going to invoke this command AM drawing view.

And then I'm going to hit this. Then you see the panel that we saw a few minutes back. So we're going to choose which view you want. So because this is the first view I'm going to put, this is my base view.

And the layout, I just have only one layout on this drawing. So I'm going to leave it as layout one. And now, I can make the changes to the scale of the view that I need to have in the layout. So I just put a 01 here. And then I'm going to say OK. And then I'm going to say, select objects. I'm going to take the entire refrigerator for drawing view here.

Now I'm going to press Enter. Now I have more options here, what views I need. So now I go in and click Standard Views. And then I'm going to take a top view as my base view.

And then I'm going to just go ahead and place it here. So then instantaneously, it creates one drawing view for me, for the top view of that refrigerator.

Now, I need to have another detailed view of this electrical component. Let's go ahead and create a detailed view. And then we're going to see that how AutoCAD Electrical will later need this for collaboration.

So now, how am I going to do that? Again, say q. And then I'm going to invoke the same thing.

Now, when you insert the base view, it doesn't allow you any dropdown. So it basically means you have to have one single base view before you can invoke any other views. So once you have created a base view, then all these dropdowns show up. That means you can create your autoviews, auxillary views, or isometric view.

So for today's session, it's detail view. So let me go ahead and click detail view. Now again, I have the option to scale this detail view. So I'm going to put three as scale. And then I can also change how my detail view, the label needs to be. I can modify what the label needs to look like, and how the detail view section needs to look like.

All these changes you can make right before you place the drawing. And also, there's an options here, which actually talks about the style which actually goes back into the template as well. So this is under the AM option.

So we're not going to go in detail around that. But just I want to highlight it, where you can make the modifications for drawing views as well.

So now I'm going to say, OK. Now, I need to select the parent view. Here is the top view that I'm going to select as parent view.

Now, how does my detail view need to look like? So the selection for detail view, is it going to be a circle, a polygon, a rectangle? So I'm going to select the rectangle, because this electrical layout is more of a rectangle.

So I'm going to just go ahead and place it here. So now I have a quick detail view of that refrigerator top view. And then now I have expanded this electrical component. Now I can add more intelligence. I can annotate this so that I can pass this on to an electrical engineer, if he needs to work on wiring for this refrigerator.

So now, how do I do the annotation? So unlike AutoCAD, AutoCAD Mechanical has a much more powerful tool. And unfortunately, due to time constraints, we cannot cover that as well. But power dimensioning in AutoCAD Mechanical which actually helps you to do a lot of things.

So let me go ahead and invoke the power dimension here. And I'm going to pick a linear dimension. Then I'm going to pick these two corners. And then I'm going to put it across in a dimension here. I think the dimensions scale was quite small.

OK. So now the thing that I can do is again, power dimension. Again, this power dimensioning is in the ribbon as well. So if I want to have a chain dimension, I can pick the base dimension here. And then I can go ahead and start placing in as many dimensions that I want in a moment of time.

So this way, I can quickly update all my dimensions for my drawing views, and then share it with the architect, or with an electrical engineer, whoever the stakeholder that you need to work with as a manufacturer.

And now let's go back to the model space. The second feature that we talked about is Bill of Materials and parts list. Let's look at how it looks like.

So I'm going to type AM BOM, or I can go to the annotate panel here. And then under the BOM, I can invoke the BOM feature as well. So let's for once we invoke it from the ribbon.

So here you can see, there is the name of the BOM that I have put in. So it's called Fridge Unit. But you can have any number of BOM. So just make sure this is your active BOM when you're working on multiple Bill of Materials.

OK. So then I'm going to press Enter. So this is how my Bill of Materials will look like. So I have a bottom door and a handle, and a top door and an electrical panel for this refrigerator. So I can add materials.

Now, these are standard fields that are available. But if you want to add additional fields, you can just go here, right click, insert column, and then onto my right. And then I can choose, like for example, I want price. I can go ahead and select the price here. And then I can start adding some value here. So I don't know, let's say, $100 for that.

So you can add any number of features, any number of columns here within the Bill of Materials. And then you can also add new rows as well.

Say, for example, I want to add a new row. And I don't have that in the Bill of Materials. But I may need it as an extra stock. I can't put that into my design. Like for example, I need an air filter for my refrigerator. But I don't want to show that in my drawing.

So in that case, I can just go ahead and then give an item number, and then give a quantity here, and then just type air filter. And then, just go ahead and add this. Now you have another component that is part of your bill of materials.

Now the thing that I was talking about is, you can export the Bill of Materials from here as well. But when you export a Bill of Materials, keep in mind, this will be read by only another AutoCAD Mechanical drawing. But here we are talking about collaboration with other stakeholders.

So for that, we need to have a parts list to be put in place. Let me go ahead and save the BOM. And now I'm going to invoke parts list.

So far this time, I'll invoke parts list from the command line. OK. So it again asks, what's the current BOM on which I need to place the parts list.

Now, this is the parts list console that you will see. So this is the one that controls the intelligent table that needs to go into the AutoCAD drawing. So you can again change the name of the parts list. And you can also add any additional rows here. It will automatically update your Bill of Materials. Both are in sync with each other.

And then you can also split. So if you have a huge assembly and you have like, 40 rows of components and you don't want to show them all, say, I want to show all the screws and not, say in a separate row, and then all the big components in a separate row, I can split this parts list as well.

And then again, in the settings, this again goes back to the template. You can make all changes to how it needs to look like. Say, for example, I need to make this to a different color, and let's say it takes to be a red. So then I'm going to say apply to that. And then I'm going to say OK. And then you have the parts list placed here.

So this parts list, you can export them right away from here as an Excel, or a database file. And then you can link it with your AutoCAD table at any given point of time. So that's the cool thing with AutoCAD Mechanical feature.

So that's about it in AutoCAD Mechanical. So let's go back to the presentation. And then we're going to talk about AutoCAD Electrical. Sorry.

OK. So now, let's look at AutoCAD Electrical. This is our last section of today's presentation. So now that we have a manufacturer provided the components and an architect provided how the architectural drawing needs to look like, now we come into the final phase where you're doing all your electrical layouts for your drawing.

And now to do that, here we are going to introduce a few features from AutoCAD Electrical that will come in handy for you. And AutoCAD Electrical, unlike Mechanical, is more a project-based software, not a drawing-based software. So it's run by a project.

So in AutoCAD Electrical, the main key feature that we want to talk about is Icon Menu Wizard. So Icon Menu actually helps you to customize icons pretty quickly. So what exactly is in the Icon Menu?

So Icon Menu has all the schematic and panel symbols that you need to use in your electrical drawing. And you can modify them at any given point of time.

And another thing that is cool with this Icon Menu is, here you see here, so they are built by this default standards, NFPA or IEEE, or [? Japanese ?] standards. They are preloaded with your AutoCAD Electrical. So once you have chosen what's the one that you need for your project, then it gets automatically populated in the Icon Menu.

And then you have subcategories here where you have all the schematic symbols already predefined here. For example, you have a push button here, and you can have fans, and motors, and any of the standard components that you need for various different standards. It's going to be already data schematics symbols there.