Using AutoCAD Mechanical Drawings with CRANEbee

Using AutoCAD Mechanical Drawings with CRANEbee

Alert
You may encounter, while using the AutoCAD connection in CRANEbee, that your cranes will have multiple copies in the drawing. All of them will be in all white.
Info
If this is the case, please check in the layers if a layer "AM_0" was created. This only happens after you send the crane from CRANEbee to AutoCAD. What it means is, that the target drawing was created in AutoCAD Mechanical and not "normal" AutoCAD. As those are two different programs with completely different object behaviors, CRANEbee can not correctly connect to drawings made and saved in AutoCAD Mechanical. Even if the file format is .dwg.
Idea
To continue using the CAD connection in CRANEbee with this drawing, it's best to attach the drawing as a reference. To do this please follow those steps:
  1. In AutoCAD open a new, empty drawing, preferably with one of our (or your own) templates. You can get our templates from here: AutoCAD Templates.
  2. Type the command XATTACH and run it. In language packs other then english please use the command _XATTACH (note the underscore).
  3. This opens a file selection window, asking you to select the file to be attached. Select the drawing you want attach and click open.

  4. In the next window, select the reference type as "Attachment" (1). You can also already set the scale and insertion point, or decide to "Specify On-screen" (2). You can see the current scale and factor of the drawing in the "Block Unit" (3). Click Ok to insert.

  5. If you choose "Specify On-screen", specify the scale and insertion point accordingly. You can either click in the empty drawing or type in the values as x,y,z to insert.
  6. Save your drawing as a new .dwg file in the "AutoCAD 2018 Drawing" format with a name of your choosing.

Idea
You are now ready to use the new drawing with CRANEbee and the cranes will behave correctly.