It is important to validate the parts in your part catalogs to ensure the parts work correctly in AutoCAD MEP 2026 toolset and that you are using the most updated catalog data in your engineering designs. When you make changes to a part catalog, you should validate and regenerate the part catalogs to ensure they are current. You can only use part catalogs that have been regenerated. Similarly, during part selection, you can only access parts that have been validated.
The content tools—Content Builder and Catalog Editor—validate and regenerate the part catalog that is being accessed when a part or part catalog is saved. However, you might want to validate and regenerate part catalogs that you have received from other users or that you are migrating from previous versions of AutoCAD MEP.