AutoCAD vs. AutoCAD Lt

I run a small landscape architecture firm and we are debating about
whether or not to upgrade to full blown AutoCAD or settle for AutoCAD
lt. I am trying to get a straight answer from someone on what the
real differences are and cannot seem to get a straight answer from my
friendly neighborhood AutoCAD salesman (suprise!)
We do a lot of drafting work, use xrefs, and from time to time import
raster images into our drawings.
If LT does this for $800 per station, then what justification is there
for spending $3K per station on AutoCAD?
Am I missing something here?

 

The items I can think of off the top of my head are 3d and LISP and 3rd
party add-ons. LT has extremely limited abilities to automate routine
processes, and 3d, while not very good in either version, is much worse
in LT. Also you may find that there are vendors that have developed
specific functions that would be of value to you, but require full-blown
Autocad with its lisp and other less pronounced capabilities to work. If
none of these items is particularly important to you, then you probably
can save the money. HOWEVER there are definitely lisp/vba scripts out
there that you can download for free or very little money that will help
you even if you aren't really using much else in the liap type of functions.

 

No. But take a look a things like slingshot from drcauto if you
haven't already.

If you're satisfied with what you've got, you probably don't need to
change it - although you could consider upgrading one workstation and
seeing what benefit that affords to the practice as a whole.

 

LT doesn't support working with images. There are work-arounds, you may not
like the result. Yes LT honors xrefs, but it does not support the xref
commands available in the full version, like x-clip. Since you indicate that
you are a landscaping architectural firm, I would recommend the full
version. If you were a landscaping contractor I would say go with LT. You
may want to split the difference and buy at least one seat of full version
and LT for the rest.

 

just curious - what actually happens when you type _image?

 

The "Image Manager" window opens; it allows you to work with images that may
already be in the drawing, but there's no "import" or "insert" option.
___

 

ah yes, now I remember - that's where drcauto comes in