Get AutoCAD or extend AutoCAD LT with Third-Party applications

[jens.liljegren]

Alright, i've come to the point when im thinking about getting Autocad instead of Autocad LT..
Ive been surfing some thirdparty applications and found this one http://www.globalcad.com/system/index.html <- the addon called Toolbox LT 2007.

My question is.. Is it really worth getting an addon like this one.. or just get Autocad from the start..

/Jens

[lmitsou]

Although I definitely prefer full blown AutoCAD, these add-ons work quite well. I know people who use them and they are -let's say- 95% happy with them. They provide lots (not all) of the features that exist in full AutoCAD and they work fine. I have used them too in the past and I haven't seen any problems. I suppose it is an affordable solution if you want to upgrade a £750 program and make it do some of the things a £3000 program does.

[SCROSLEY]

I found that LT Extender is a great ad on program. When using LT with LT extender, I have found very little incompatibility between the two versions in fact, every one in my office thinks they have the full version of acad.

http://www.lt-extender.com/LT-Extend...ch/default.htm

[mygtown7]

I'm currently trying different demo versions to see what they do. My company does high end residential and most of our work is 2D. here are some links of the ones are trying.

http://www.drcauto.com/

http://www.pendean.com/

http://www.ltexpress.com/

http://www.cadopolis.com

Cadopolis has many links to different add-ons.

[gwurst]

These add-ons do not support 3-D do they? So for the most part you would be getting everything but the 3-D right? That is one of the major reasons we have considered full blown AutoCAD. As a good substitute for 3-D I use SketchUp. The program is pretty cheap for what it can do & is SO quick.

[wjspence]

drcauto supports 3d. I don't know about any of the others. I am about 95% happy with it.

[lmitsou]

I am quite sure that LT-Extender supports 3D too. Which also means that Toolbox LT supports 3D (Globalcad Toolbox LT and LT-Extender are the same. Two companies but the same program. Slightly different interface).

[terryh]

Drcauto has the 3D View and the Shade toolbars, but it does not create 3D objects. You can open an existing 3D drawing but that's about it. I only draw in 2D so the Drcauto Toolkit Max is ideal for what I need it for and at about 1/5 the price (LT plus Toolkit). It doesn't have the sheet sets fuction or the ability to create dynamic block, so I'm looking at getting the full version sometime in the future.

[H-Angus]

Whilst I'd rather have full blown Acad, if a Acad Lt with 3rd party add ons will allow you to do what you require and its less money then its difficult not to go that way, but I guess having the full version you would start to use other parts of the program which without hindsight perhaps never evisaged being useful to you.

What features of full AutoCad are you interested in? If its just the 3D side of things then think about what you will be using the 3D for, if you're intending to produce full 3D models of buildings then you might consider one of the vertical products such as Revit or ADT etc. I personally haven't had much success with Acad 3D except for using as concept models or presentation.

[gjgrote-wren]

Hello All,

I would like to bump this topic back up into the active discussions. We've got two seats of full AutoCAD (actually, Inventor 9 suite, but we only use the AutoCAD MD, and we only use it for maintenance of legacy products and such) and two seats of LT 2007 (which we use to do some 2D CAD floor plan layout work for a big customer). I would like to buy an extender for the LT to permit those guys to run LISP routines and other time-saving modules. Don't care about 3D because we do all of our solids stuff in another package.

[update]: I will also need VBA functionality, as we transition from LISP to VBA ....

mygtown7 (et. al), what were the results of your evaluations? Recommendations?

Has anyone actually used any of the extenders with LT 2007?

Thanks in advance,
Greg