What's New in AutoCAD Mechanical 2021 Toolset

The following is an overview of the changes made to AutoCAD Mechanical 2021 toolset.

AutoCAD Mechanical 2021 toolset provides a set of enhancements based on customer feedback, surveys, and analytic data that prioritize our efforts. Several features modernize and streamline frequently used features across many customer disciplines. The drawing format for this release has been upgraded to AutoCAD Mechanical 2021. For developers, this is an API-breaking release.

ISO and DIN Standard Revision Update for Weld Symbols

The welding symbol has been updated in AutoCAD Mechanical 2021 toolset to support the latest ISO and DIN standard revisions (ISO 2553:2013 and DIN EN ISO 2553:2014). The changes include the revision of the elementary and supplementary symbols, and the new weld notation (Distance between two points). The multi-reference line support is also added to the latest revision.

With the added support to the new ISO and DIN standard revisions, you can annotate documents created in AutoCAD Mechanical toolset using the latest revisions of the welding standards. Although, you can use the latest revisions in new documents, AutoCAD Mechanical toolset will continue to support the legacy revisions to allow documents created in previous releases to be opened, edited, and saved.

Note: Saving the new revision of weld symbols in an older file format converts the weld symbol to a block.

Options Dialog Box

In AutoCAD Mechanical toolset, the new ISO and DIN standard revisions are the default standards for a new drawing. When you open a legacy drawing, the default standard is changed to the old standard revision. You can change the standard revision in the Options dialog box.

Weld Symbol Settings Dialog Box

You can now see the new revision in the Weld Symbol Settings dialog box. The corresponding welding and backing symbols are also listed in the Symbol filter.

Weld Symbol Dialog Box

In the Weld Symbol dialog box, you can see the following changes:
  • New controls for multi-reference line support
  • Distance palette options
    • Intermittent weld
    • Distance between 2 points
  • New weld and backing symbols in the Symbol palette

Properties Palette

All weld symbol properties are displayed and can be changed in the Properties palette.

Icon Refresh

The icons in frequently used palettes and dialog boxes have been refreshed to support 4K resolution and show optimum contrast.

Other Enhancements

AutoCAD Mechanical toolset leverages most of the new features from AutoCAD. For more information, refer to the What's New in AutoCAD 2021 topic in Help.