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Mechanical Desktop 5  by John E. Wilson

Geoff Harrod

Autodesk’s Mechanical Desktop is a very popular and capable 3D mechanical design system, but also one that is rather complex and hard to learn. I think its complexity stems from its being built on top of the AutoCAD general-purpose 2D/3D CAD system. Mechanical Desktop provides a good feature-based parametric 3D solid modeller, alongside all the line-based 2D & 3D drafting facilities of AutoCAD and the rather different 3D solid modeling facilities built into the standard AutoCAD product. I think it is the existence of these three quite different modes of CAD operation, all together, that leads to the complexity. It is also, of course, the thing that has made Mechanical Desktop the first choice for designers who have long been used to 2D design using AutoCAD, and are making the transition to parametric feature-based 3D solids design methods.

This book provides very valuable guidance on finding your way through this complexity. Unlike some third-party books about software products, it genuinely supplements the product manual and on-line help, providing guidance and information not found there. It cuts through the complexities, especially those arising from the different ways of working in the product mentioned above, and guides you to a sound understanding of the product’s logic. I had been rather confused about some aspects of Mechanical Desktop’s operation, and this book clarified things considerably for me.

John E. Wilson, the author, has been a columnist for Cadence Magazine since 1991, and runs a one-person design and drafting service. He has also written books on 3D modeling in the basic AutoCAD package. The publishers brand this book as suitable for Novice through to Intermediate level readers. That means in effect, that it leads someone totally new to the software into its basics and on to a fairly competent level, and I would agree with that assertion.

The chapter headings pretty well summarise the topics and indicate the logical progression of instruction:

1. Working with Mechanical Desktop – interface, introduction to parametrics.
2. Parametric Modeling Overview – parts, features, 2D drawings from models, assembly modeling.
3. Profiles and Sketch Planes.
4. Geometric Constraints.
5. Dimensional Constraints.
6. Equations and Design Variables.
7. Work Features – points, axes, planes.
8. Sketched Features – extruded, revolved, lofted, bends, ribs.
9. Working with Sketched Features
10. Swept Features.
11. Placed Features – holes, chamfers, fillets, shells, molding and casting.
12. 3D Features from 3D Features.
13. Managing Features – deleting, re-ordering, suppression, mass properties.
14. 2D Drawings from 3D Parts – layouts, title blocks, layers, views.
15. Working with Drawing Views – ortho, auxiliary, isometric, detail, broken, section, exporting.
16. Working with Drawing Dimensions and Annotations – includes the use of 2D mechanical components and ‘Power Dimensioning’.
17. Working with Multiple Parts – assembly modeling.
18. Working with assembly Constraints.
19. Working with Assemblies and Scenes.
20. Drawings from Assemblies - & bill of materials.

Included with this 515-page book is a CD-ROM that has all the exercise and demonstration models and drawings that are used throughout the book. It has MDT5 DWG files and Excel XLS files. The Excel files are used in the database connectivity and table-driven design exercises.

The book is profusely illustrated, mainly with captured fragments from the MDT screen, reprocessed to produce simple black line drawings on the white paper. These are far clearer than most unmodified screen captures, and usually have had explanatory text placed on the work before capturing. There are some monochrome rendered tonal images, which are used where the shading is important for the illustrating the topic. There are also some full-screen captures showing the menus etc. as well, but these all use black wireframe lines on a white work area to provide the clearest possible illustration on paper. There is rarely a page without illustrations, and they are all very meaningful. As an example, here is the illustration for the use of open profiles (a powerful facility that is not universally supported among 3D systems).

Most topics are explained in terms of basic principles, and then more deeply step-by-step using one or more example parts. The topic is usually then reinforced by presenting another example part for the reader to do as an exercise, with some guidance on how to go about it. The CD-ROM contains the MDT files of the completed example parts and also the files for the starting condition and sometimes the completion of the exercises.

This book is about MDT 5. At the time of writing this review, MDT 6 is being released. However, this book will remain entirely valid for v6, and probably for v7 also, because it deals with all the basic concepts and operations, which remain unchanged in essence. The things that are new in MDT 6 are mainly connected with changes between AutoCAD 2000i and 2002, which respectively underlie MDT 5 and 6. Those are mainly to do with standards and drawing office management support. I am not sure if CMP-Cadence intend to produce a new version of this book for MDT 6, but it is quite possible that may not be warranted.

I can unreservedly recommend this book to anyone starting to use MDT, or anyone who has been struggling with it. It will considerably smooth the path of becoming confident and productive, and steer you away from the various traps that exist. It would also be worthwhile reading for anyone considering adopting Mechanical Desktop.

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