2D Mechanical Drawing Commands in BricsCAD Mechanical Overview

Disclaimer: unless otherwise indicated, “AutoCAD Mechanical” in this article refers to the AutoCAD® Mechanical application by Autodesk®.

Quick answer: These commands create dimensions or mechanical symbols following the ISO, DIN, JIS, and ANSI standards, and these annotations stay compatible with the legacy AutoCAD® Mechanical application. Mechanical entities add to specific layers (AM_5 and AM_12, for example) regardless of whatever layer is currently set, though entities created directly in AutoCAD® Mechanical may use different layers, as defined by that application.

Setting Up the 2D Mechanical Drawing Environment

Set LOADMECHANICAL2D to 1 to use Mechanical 2D commands in BricsCAD; this value persists across sessions once set. Three use cases apply:

1. Create a new drawing from a 2D template.
2. Open an existing Mechanical 2D drawing containing mechanical entities. Warning: the minimum supported AutoCAD® Mechanical drawing version is 2012, and the maximum is 2022. Opening an ACM drawing from an unsupported version displays this message: “The file is opened in read-only mode for viewing. The version of this AutoCAD® Mechanical DWG file is not supported in BricsCAD Mechanical. Unsupported files may show proxy entities or, in some cases, be permanently damaged when saved. To avoid these issues, we recommend saving the file in the latest supported version (2022) before reopening it in BricsCAD.”
3. Start from a non-mechanical drawing and add drafting standards using AMSETUPDWG.

After opening a drawing containing mechanical entities, filling other drawings with mechanical-related data happens on-demand, only once a user copies mechanical-related entities into a vanilla drawing (copying non-mechanical entities alone won’t fill it with mechanical data). If you open a drawing containing mechanical entities while LOADMECHANICAL2D is off, a warning balloon appears on the Status Bar, with a hyperlink to enable and load the mechanical 2D modules immediately.

System Variables

AMPOWERDIMDISPLAY, AMSYMSCALE, LOADMECHANICAL2D, and MECH2DSAVEFORMAT control the BricsCAD Mechanical drawing environment.

Setting the Drawing Format

AMSETUPDWG changes a mechanical 2D drawing’s current standard, or sets up a mechanical 2D template for a non-mechanical drawing.

Dimensioning Commands

PDIM (creates multiple dimension types in a single workflow; itself an AMPOWERDIM command), AMPOWERDIM_ALI (aligned linear), AMPOWERDIM_ANG (angular), AMPOWERDIM_DIA (diameter), AMPOWERDIM_HOR (linear horizontal), AMPOWERDIM_RAD (radial, for arcs and circles), AMPOWERDIM_ROT (rotated linear), and AMPOWERDIM_VER (vertical linear).

Mechanical Symbol Commands

These insert mechanical symbols according to the active drafting standard: AMBALLOON (balloon annotations for geometry, blocks, or standard parts annotated with part references), AMBOMSETTINGS (launches the BOM Settings dialog), AMCLEAN (saves a mechanical 2D drawing as a non-mechanical one), AMDATUMID (datum identifier), AMEDGESYM (edge symbol), AMFCFRAME (feature control frame), AMNOTE (leader note), AMPARTLIST (parts list, based on a BOM), AMPARTREF (part reference symbol), AMPARTREFEDIT (edits part reference properties), AMRESCALE (rescales dimensions, symbols, tables, and text in model space and layouts), AMSIMPLEWELD (caterpillar and side weld annotations), AMSURFSYM (surface symbol), AMTAPERSYM (slope symbol), and AMWELDSYM (welding symbol).

Editing Dimensions and Mechanical Symbols

AMPOWEREDIT identifies the selected dimension or mechanical symbol entity and runs the most relevant command to edit it; it also launches automatically when you double-click any such entity.

Associated Dialog Boxes

Edit Dimensioning, Datum Identifier, Weld Symbol, Surface Texture, Part references, Parts List, and BOM Settings for.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which versions of AutoCAD Mechanical drawings does BricsCAD support opening? 2012 through 2022; opening a file from an unsupported version opens it read-only, with a warning that it may show proxy entities or become permanently damaged if saved.

Do mechanical entities always add to the currently active layer? No, they add to specific dedicated layers (like AM_5 or AM_12) regardless of which layer is currently set.

What happens if I open a drawing with mechanical entities while LOADMECHANICAL2D is off? A warning balloon appears on the Status Bar with a hyperlink to immediately enable and load the mechanical 2D modules.

What does double-clicking a dimension or mechanical symbol entity do? It launches AMPOWEREDIT, which identifies the entity and runs the most relevant command to edit it.