With the advancement of technology, different sectors are evolving to produce quality work, one such sector is the civil engineering sector which is the backbone of infrastructural development. Designing and constructing buildings, houses, railway platforms etc is not an easy task and requires a lot of resources and time, so to ease the designing and modelling work many companies released different software, two of the most used software in this field are AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT. They are used in modelling, designing, and drafting different civil infrastructures so we will see a detailed comparison between the two.
AutoCAD is computer software which helps in drafting and designing different types of computer applications. CAD is an acronym for Computer-Aided Design. It was developed by Autodesk. It is compatible with different operating systems like Windows, MacOS, iOS etc. It was first released in 1982 and its stable version was released in 2021. It is available in many languages. It provides robust tools for easing the work of designing.
Advantages of AutoCAD
- It comes with advanced features which help in the accurate and precise designing of civil infrastructures.
- It allows importing files from other platforms to work on pre-built designs.
- It allows to easily share files without any data loss to multiple parties simultaneously.
- Calculation of Area, Center of Gravity, Mass, Volume etc is very easy.
- It provides enhanced image tracing functionality which helps in converting handmade designs to digital designs.
Disadvantages of AutoCAD
- It is not suitable for Building Information Modelling (BIM).
- It supports limited file formats to import into this software.
- It is heavy software which requires high memory and disk storage.
AutoCAD LT is a lighter version of AutoCAD, it was made for people who have a lower budget and want to perform some simple tasks rather than advanced designing and drafting. Initially, it was released in 1993 and its desktop subscription services were released in 2015. It was the only software which was available at a price below $1000 for a year from the suite of AutoCAD products. It is also available in many languages.
Advantages of AutoCAD LT
- It is available at a lower price than AutoCAD
- It provides a simpler interface as compared to AutoCAD.
- It is lighter and does not require high processing power.
- It requires a small amount of disk space as compared to AutoCAD.
Disadvantages of AutoCAD LT
- It does not provide 3D model creating or visualizing functionalities.
- It is not suitable for 3D printing purposes.
Following is a table of differences between AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT:
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AutoCAD |
AutoCAD LT |
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| 1. | It can be understood as computer-aided design software which is used in construction, designing, and drafting 3D models. | It can be understood as computer-aided design software which is used in 2D designing and drafting. |
| 2. | It was developed by Autodesk. | It was developed by Autodesk. |
| 3. | Its price starts at $235 per month. | Its price starts at $50 per month. |
| 4. | It allows 2D as well as 3D drafting. | It only supports 2D designing and drafting. |
| 5. | It is available for mobile devices also. | It does not support mobile devices. |
| 6. | It requires LISP integration for coding. | It does not provide customizing features using LISP. |
| 7. | It comes with single as well as multiple user licensing. | It provides single-user licensing. |
| 8. | It is the best choice for medium and large-scale organizations. | It is the best choice for small companies and individual users. |