AutoCAD Mechanical 2008

The following requirements apply to AutoCAD® Mechanical software. Additional system requirements are necessary to run the Autodesk® Vault Server/Client. Please note that Microsoft® XP Starter Edition and Tablet Edition are not supported at this time.

32-bit Requirements

Recommended System Requirements

This configuration is suggested primarily for detail-drafting activities, moderate use of the standard parts, and 2D assemblies fewer than 100 parts.

• Intel® Pentium® 4 or later, with 2.2 Ghz or faster processor, or compatible
• Microsoft® Windows®  2000 SP4
• Windows® XP Professional or Home Edition SP2
• Windows Vista™ Enterprise, Business, Ultimate, Premium, and Basic
• 512 MB RAM
• 1.5 GB of free disk space
• 32 MB or more Open GL® graphics card or DirectX® 9 support
• 1280x1024x32-bit true color or better (Minimum is 1024x768 VGA with true color)
• Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 6 SP1 or higher
• MS-Mouse compliant pointing device
• CD-ROM or DVD

Preferred System Requirements

The following increases from the recommended requirements are suggested for production-level 2D assembly modeling (hundreds of parts or more) with heavy use of standard parts, associative 2D hide, or Autodesk Inventor® associativity.

• Intel Pentium 4 or later, with 2.8 GHz or faster processor (e.g., Intel Pentium M 1.8GHz for Laptop) and with at least 1MB total Cache
• 1.5 GB or more RAM
• 2.5 GB of free disk space  
• 128 MB or more Open GL work-station class graphics card or DirectX 9 support

Note: Less-capable machines can run AutoCAD Mechanical 2007, but the results may be less than ideal. The use of additional memory and faster processors directly improves performance and capacity and is strongly recommended for design work entailing the use of the software’s design and engineering functionality, such as 2D structure, associative 2D hide, standard parts, calculations, machinery system generators (shaft, belt/chain drive systems, and so on), and Autodesk® Inventor™ associativity functionality.

64-bit Requirements

The following requirements apply to AutoCAD Mechanical software. Additional system requirements are necessary to run the Autodesk Vault Server/Client. Please note that Microsoft XP Starter Edition and Tablet Edition are not supported at this time.

Recommended System Requirements

• AMD Athlon® 64, AMD Opteron®, Intel® Xeon® with Intel EM64T, or Pentium 4 with EM64T support
• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
• Windows Vista™ 64 bit
• 1 GB RAM (more than 1.5 preferred)
• 1.8 GB of free disk space (more than 2.5 preferred)
• 32 MB or more Open GL graphics card or DirectX 9 support (more than 128 MB preferred)
• 1280x1024x32-bit true color or better (Minimum is 1024x768 VGA with true color)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 SP1 or higher
• MS-Mouse compliant pointing device
• DVD

Note: Less-capable machines can run AutoCAD Mechanical 2008, but the results may be less than ideal. The use of additional memory and faster processors directly improves performance and capacity and is strongly recommended for design work entailing the use of the software’s design and engineering functionality, such as 2D structure, associative 2D hide, standard parts, calculations, machinery system generators (shaft, belt/chain drive systems, and so on), and Autodesk Inventor link functionality.

Autodesk Data Management Server (ADMS)

The following recommendations apply to Autodesk Data Management Server software. (These requirements are in addition to any system requirements for individual applications.)

Recommended System Requirements

• Intel® Pentium 4, Xeon®, or AMD Athlon™ processor, 2 GHz or better processor
• 1GB RAM, or more
• 60 GB free disk space, or more

Preferred System Requirements

• ZPentium 4, Xeon, or AMD Athlon processor, 2 GHz or better processor
• 2 GB RAM or more
• 120 GB free disk space, or more

Supported Operating Systems

• Microsoft® Windows Vista™²
• Microsoft Windows® XP Professional³ 32/64 bit
• Microsoft Windows 2000³ Professional 32 bit (SP4)
• Microsoft Windows Server® 2000¹ 32 bit (SP4)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard¹ 32/64 bit (SP1)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard¹ R2 32/64 bit
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise¹ 32/64 bit (SP1)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise R2¹ 32/64 bit
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SB Edition¹ 32/64 bit (SP1)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SB Edition R2¹ 32/64 bit

Supported Databases

• Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Desktop Edition, MSDE        (SP3a, SP4)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Standard Edition (SP3a, SP4)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Enterprise Edition (SP3a, SP4)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express (SP0, SP1)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Workgroup (SP0, SP1)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard (SP0, SP1)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise (SP0, SP1)

¹ For best performance on servers, Autodesk recommends a dedicated member (non-domain controller) server

² Limited to a maximum of 10 concurrent requests (Data Management queries). In order to a support large number of additional requests or users, Autodesk recommends a server operating system along with the server version of Microsft SQL Server 2000 (Standard or Enterprise Edition), or Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (Workgroup, Standard, or Enterprise Edition).  In order to use these other SQL Versions, you must purchase this software separately from Microsoft or a Microsoft reseller.

³ Limited to a maximum of 10 concurrent connections (Data Management queries). In order to a support large number of additional requests or users, Autodesk recommends a server operating system along with the server version of Microsft SQL Server 2000 (Standard or Enterprise Edition), or Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (Workgroup, Standard, or Enterprise Edition).  In order to use these other SQL Versions, you must purchase this software separately from Microsoft or a Microsoft reseller.