The major limitation of horizontal CAD used for mechanical drawing such as AutoCAD and BricsCAD is the impossibility of structuring the drawing in a hierarchical way:

  • The layers are all at the same hierarchical level, that is, it is not possible to define parents with children.
  • Blocks, on the other hand, can have a sort of hierarchy between them, but they are extremely cumbersome to manage.


The use of parts has the following advantages:

  • You can  conveniently select an entire part , with any sub-parts, by indicating just one element.
  • Parts  can be stored in a file  and then loaded from that file using the appropriate TOP commands. This technique allows you to create custom libraries . Using the integration with PDM Data & Drawings, searching  for the various library drawings is greatly facilitated, as selections can be made based on attributes.
  • By creating a drawing divided into parts, it is possible to have  multiple people work on the individual parts  that compose it, and then assemble the entire drawing.
  • By creating a drawing divided into parts, it is possible to simplify its visualization, and therefore also the approach during the drawing phase, by acting on the visibility  of the parts.
  • The use of parts facilitates the management of the drawing and editing commands, thanks to the locking  of parts at hierarchical levels higher than  the current one, and thanks to the possibility of arbitrarily locking  some parts in order to avoid accidental modification. 
  • The drawing list  is created automatically: it is the entire parts tree. However, it is always possible to exclude some parts from the list.
  • The marking  is done by selecting a part; then, during the creation of the table, the attributes of the previously marked parts are automatically read.
  • The compilation of the title block  occurs automatically by "reading" the attributes of the TOP part (i.e. the main part).