Although the Standard Part Content Libraries shipped with AutoCAD Mechanical contains more than 600,000 pre-drawn standard parts and standard features, not all are not installed by default.
Only the standard part libraries that that belong to the drafting standards you select at installation time are copied to your computer. If required, you can install standard parts with Add/Remove Programs applet in the Windows Control Panel later on.
Regardless of the drafting standard you select in the AM:Standards tab (in the Options dialog box) you have access to all the standard parts installed on your computer. For example, AutoCAD Mechanical does not prevent you from selecting a DIN 931-2:2008, Hex Head Screw tapped hole, even when the current drafting standard is ISO and the measurement is metric.
Because the content library contains a large number of parts, dialog boxes for selecting items from the content library may take a considerable time to load. You can unload the standard parts that belong to standards you do not use frequently and load them only as and when needed. You can also change the position of content library items, so that frequently used standards and parts appear at the beginning of the selection lists.
By default, standard parts and standard features appear on special mechanical layers called standard part layers. By default, the names of these layers end with the letter “N.” Standard part layers enable you to turn on or turn off the visibility of standard parts by clicking the pointing device once. You can configure AutoCAD Mechanical to create standard parts on regular mechanical layers instead of standard part layers.
You can also change the representation of standard parts and standard features. You can do this at any time during a drawing session.
Standard part settings are saved in the Windows registry. Once you set them, they remain in force regardless of the selected drafting standard. Since these settings are not in the drawing, they do not move from one computer to another through template (.dwt) files.