New in Mechanica

The Mechanica module has been supplemented with additional features for 3D design of assembly units. The new tools are designed to meet the needs of automating the creation of drawings and specifications.

The file type can be changed depending on the purpose:

• not specified
• part
• assembly

The specified file type has the appropriate properties and is passed to the specification.

The file with the assigned type Not selected is a regular *.dwg file, in which you can draw up two-dimensional drawings and specifications.

For files of the Part and Assembly types, the following properties have been added, which are necessary when creating specifications for 3D models:

• section
• name
• designation
• note

In the properties of parts and assemblies files (Stamps Data section), fields for the main, inventory and reference inscriptions of drawings and specifications have been created. When creating a drawing or specification, they are associated with the corresponding format fields.

Assembly design is performed using external references, when assembly unit files are compiled from part files using such references. In turn, assembly units consisting of several parts can be part of larger assembly units. Thus, you can get the desired level of nesting of assembly units, form the design composition of an item in the history of building the assembly model.

When using external references in 3D model files of parts and assembly units, the corresponding drawings can be formed in the paper space of external files without overloading the model space and maintaining the associativity of the 3D model and drawing.

In the properties of parts and assembly units, you can specify such data as section, name, designation and note, as well as data for filling drawing stamps. If you use a part or assembly as a block multiple times, copy the block or use the Insert Block command. By assembling from blocks, you can generate a specification and prepare an assembly drawing.

Blocks with parts and assembly units can be copied from one file to another, while all their properties are preserved.

When forming specification from a 3D model, data are collected from the assembly, such as the names and designations of parts and assembly units, sections of the specification in which these assemblies should fall, as well as notes for the specification.

Blocks with parts and assembly units can be copied from one file to another, at that all their properties are preserved.

When forming specification from a 3D model, data are collected from the assembly, such as the names and designations of parts and assembly units, sections of the specification in which these assemblies should fall, as well as notes for the specification.

In views of 3D model of an assembly, you can place numbered leaders of specification positions. Specification leaders position numbers are synchronized with the specification editor, and specification elements can be renumbered.

3D parts can be assigned with materials from the element database that have a density value, as well as universal custom materials, for which you can specify any desired density. Based on the material’s density and the part’s geometric volume, the part weight is automatically calculated. If the parts are assembled into an assembly unit, the weight of such an assembly unit will consist of the weights of the parts included in it. And by the weight of the included parts and assembly units, you can determine the total weight of the main assembly.

When creating stamping, you can now select multiple closed contours (sketch areas) at once.

The Flange sheet modeling command has appeared, which allows you to create a bend in a sheet metal part along a flat edge of arbitrary shape or a chain of edges that meet tangentially.

In the Mechanica module, grid display in model space is now disabled by default.

The Broken section view command allows you to automatically obtain images of database items such as keyways and center holes on shafts. On parts and flanges, this command can be used to make half cuts. On the bottoms and shells with reduced dimensions, their thickness can be shown.
When creating a broken section, all database items that fall within its frame are shown in section. In this case, if the database item does not have a section view, its normal view will be displayed.
When using geometry that falls into a local section, it is reshaped by the Refresh view frame button or by mcregenobj command.

When working with sheet models, the ability to create a flat view as a separate body is implemented. This functionality gives you more freedom when drawing from sheet metal 3D models. Flat drawings can now be drawn in two states simultaneously: unbended and bent, while maintaining associativity with the 3D model.

The properties of fastener parts have been worked out.
For old standards, the following properties have been added:

• Thread direction
• Thread tolerance field
• Material
• Strength class/group
• Type/grade of steel
• Coating
• Coating thickness

For new standards, the following properties have been added:

• Material
• Strength class
• Coating
• Coating element
• Coating thickness
• Finishing of the coating
• Coating method
• Coating lubrication
• Duration of trials

The file to replace the singular with the plural is added. This file named SpecRecsGroupingNameReplace.txt is installed in the C:\ProgramData\Nanosoft\nanoCAD x64 22.0\NanoMechanical\UserTemplates\en-US folder and is available for users to modify in order to add own words that should be changed during grouping. If, when grouping specification lines, you come across a replacement word (for example, "Screw"), then it is replaced with a substitute word (for example, "Screws"). The file’s action also applies to custom grouping of lines with $$ tags.

Additional specification templates with the customer's stamp have been made for all specification templates available in the database (simple, group type A and type B, group type A up to 3 versions and plasma). Columns have been added in these templates for the customer sign, decision numbers, approval years, and customer index.

Materials according to EN, DIN and ASTM with the possibility of their designation both by chemical composition or brand, and by numbers.

3D thread on standard fasteners.

Mechanica has transitioned to a new materials database management system that takes into account user wis list items. The new database includes elements from the general database of objects, as well as these improvements over the old one: 

• More complex and varied materials

• Custom materials

• Multi-line notes for materials

Mechanica’s Hole fill tool improves the conversion to threaded holes:

• Hole diameters becomes the outer diameter of the threads

• Internal thread diameters depend on the snap selection 

• Names of metric threads are set

The Tables of holes tool now constructs the left coordinate system of holes.

• Dimensioning in UCSes is corrected.

• Symbols for surfaces are corrected.