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You have probably encountered the Autocad Mechanical Desktop and Autocad Architectural Desktop because they are getting popular these days. Well, these software packages are actually a combination of the typical Autocad software you have in your desktop computer and Autocad plugins . The core autocad engine, programs and dynamic link libraries, are basically the same to make it run and functional as a computer-aided drawing software.
Unlike typical or third party autocad plugins or addons, the autocad plugins in Autocad Mechanical and Architectural Desktop come built in them. When you buy these softwares, you don't have to do a separate installation of the plugins/addons. The software package comes with an installer that takes care all the things for you to run a fully functional Autocad Mechanical or Architectural Desktop. With a third party autocad plugin, you have to do a separate installation aside from the usual installation of your autocad software. However, these third party autocad plugins/addons, also come with their installers that automatically set up everything. But there are also third party developers that write plugins which doesn't have installers. To use the plugin, you have to load it using the command "appload" of autocad and type the custom autocad commmands
that come with it. These are ussually the case for free but fully functional autocad plugins and for those plugins/addons that are under beta release.
What makes the Autocad Mechanical Desktop stand out from your ordinary Autocad program and other CAD systems are the custom commands tailored specially for detailing mechanical drawings. With the Autocad Mechanical Desktop, you don't have to type long series of commands just to draw a particular mechanical part. You also don't have to repeat a tedious series of commands just to draw bigger, smaller or extended variation of a mechanical part. All you have to do is hit a custom command (autocad commands specific to this software) for a particular mechanical part and you are done. The same is true with Autocad Architectural Desktop. The only difference is that its custom commands are tailored for drawing architectural objects faster and easier.
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