Ah - Springtime. The sky seems brighter, the tree’s and flowers are beginning to bud, and with it come’s the latest AutoCAD software release. Yes,  AutoCAD  LT 2010 has bloomed.

Some new additions to AutoCAD LT 2010 include of the same PDF underlay and improved PDF output capabilities found in the full version of AutoCAD 2010. External reference commands formerly found only in AutoCAD, such as in-place reference editing, are now available to LT users too.

Other new LT capabilities include the ability to synchronize attributes to update all instances of a block when new attributes are added to block definitions and an enhanced attribute editor for changing the properties of individual attributes. LT also uses the full version of AutoCAD’s Align command.

AutoCAD LT 2010 uses an updated DWG file format, so if you work with people using an older version, you’ll need to use the SaveAs function to save to the previous DWG format.

Although AutoCAD LT is still a 2D program,  it can display 3D models created in AutoCAD.

“What” you may ask, “is the difference between Autocad - the full version - and Autocad LT?” Well, to begin with, AutoCAD LT has limited capabilities - the main difference is that LT does not include 3D functions and does not support Lisp. It is marketed primarily as a 2D drafting and detailing tool used  for documenting ideas and designs.

Compared to the full edition of AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT lacks some features. Although it has no 3D modeling capabilities, it has a full suite of 3D viewing functions for looking at 3D models created in other CAD package. AutoCAD LT does not include any programming interfaces, such as support for most third party programs and it does not support AutoLISP programs. AuotLisp is a variant of the Lisp programming language developed years ago. Autolisp is used for making AutoCAD shortcuts and timesavers.