AutoCAD LT 2006

by Autodesk

Product Features

• Dynamic blocks give more drafting control and flexibility, allowing greater manipulation while reducing size of block libraries
• Improved annotation and composition, enhancing hatching capabilities and streamlining placement & editing of table information
• Command line at graphics cursor -- enter dimensional and command option information as you work and get immediate feedback
• Streamlined migration process for easier upgrading of toolbars and menus
• Enhanced user interface for easier completion of formerly multi-step tasks

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00081PQV4
• Item model number: 05726-091452-9000
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 18, 2005
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,688 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #11 in Software > Graphics > CAD
  • #80 in Software > Graphics > Professional Design
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From Amazon.com

With the 2006 version of AutoCAD LT, Autodesk offers a more flexible and intuitive application designed to make professionals more productive than ever. Key features like more flexible hatching, improved dimensioning, and user-friendly text editing make AutoCAD LT 2006 a worthy upgrade from previous versions. Autodesk has also improved the user interface, enhanced the editing toolkit, and more--again, with the goal of increasing productivity for 2D drafting and detailing.

Dimension with greater ease: New arc length and large radius dimensioning.

Reduce waiting time: Plot jobs and spend more time drafting with background plotting, which allows you to continue working in the drawing editor while AutoCAD LT plots in the background.

Mark up: Easily coordinate projects throughout design review with the markup and redlining functionality of AutoCAD and Autodesk DWF Composer.

View DWF files: The free downloadable Autodesk DWF Viewer enables you to view DWF files that preserve design intent without requiring the original design application.

AutoCAD LT is aimed at design professionals in all industries who require full DWG file format compatibility but do not require 3D capabilities or advanced customization of their software.

Enhanced User Interface
New drafting features in AutoCAD LT 2006 make it easier than ever to get fast results. A new pointer input enables you to launch commands, read prompts and enter values right at the graphics cursor. This keeps your attention focused on your design, rather than on the command line. Meanwhile, the dimension input shows dimension values, such as length and angle, on the object being created or edited. New values can be entered and changed dynamically in the graphics window, which makes interacting with your design dynamic and allows you to explore alternatives "on the fly." There's also a new "Quick Calculator" that makes it easy to perform calculations, units conversion, and derive values from drawing entities all from within AutoCAD LT. This gives you the power of the CAL command without the complex command syntax required in previous versions.

Another user interface improvement, rollover highlighting, helps you avoid time spent selecting wrong objects in a drawing by dynamically highlighting objects in your drawing as you roll over them with the graphics cursor. The new interface also allows for easy customization of menus and toolbars, and automates migration of custom toolbars and menus for future releases. What's more, you can easily customize tool palettes for storing frequently used blocks and hatches. This feature is great for draging and dropping content directly into your drawing. It also makes it easy to quickly find and insert frequently used content, hatches, and solid fills. You can now pre-assign tool properties, as well, such as layer, color, and scale. Properties are automatically applied as you insert content into your drawings.

Text and table handling is dramatically improved in AutoCAD LT 2006, with a focus on intuitive WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interaction. Insert standard WYSIWYG tables with in-place editing and intuitive keyboard functionality, similar to that of Microsoft Word. In addition to standard grip editing, table editing options are available through the context-sensitive menu, and the properties window. Meanwhile, text is created and edited so it will appear exactly as it does in the drawing. Easily view, size, position, and edit text relative to nearby geometry, while adjusting text properties such as style and font as needed using familiar tools common in other text-editing applications.

Better Dimensioning
Drafting just got a lot easier with AutoCAD LT 2006's new dimensioning tools. First, variable dimension line types allow you to select different dimension and extension line types by using the dimension style or properties dialogs. This lets you to give your dimensions exactly the line type you prefer without spending the time to explode and edit them. Next, new arc-length functionality avoids current time-consuming work-arounds by directly dimensioning the length of an arc. You can also dimension large radii curves quickly and easily. This function creates a jogged radial dimension line to indicate the radius of an arc or a circle that is too large to fit on the drawing. Finally, moving dimension arrows manually is a thing of the past, as new flipping dimension arrows allow you to flip an individual dimension arrow from inside to outside of the dimension line and back.

Simplified Plotting
AutoCAD LT 2006's enhanced plot user interface conveniently places all page setup controls in one location, with the most commonly used controls on the left side. The preview option provides a full preview of how the current plot settings will be applied when you plot the drawing. You can also now enjoy the benefits of background plotting. Whether you publish your designs to DWF files or plot to paper, you can continue working in the drawing editor while AutoCAD LT plots in the background. You'll receive an unobtrusive notification when a plot job is completed, and you can follow the link to view the plot and publish details in the plot and publish details dialog box.

Easy Sharing with DWF
Getting your DWF files out to clients and colleagues is easier than ever with AutoCAD LT 2006. Publish intelligent design data with Autodesk DWF (Design Web Format) file format, and save time by simplifying collaboration with your design team. Because it can create files that can be one-tenth the size of files created in other formats, the DWF format is the fastest, easiest way to communicate design information while ensuring secure and efficient sharing at any stage of the project lifecycle.

Mark up designs and easily coordinate projects during the design review phase by replacing the paper process with Autodesk DWF Composer. Use DWF Composer to mark up drawings with comments, sketches, dimensions, text, and stamps before sending them on their way. You can also view DWF files with the free Autodesk DWF Viewer, which presents intelligent data preserved with accuracy, including drawing scale, coordinates, assorted views, hyperlinks, and more. Print to scale, fit to page, tile, or selectively print a variety of sheets from a DWF sheet set.

Product Description

AutoCAD LT 2006 increases efficiency with across-the-board improvements, delivering a new standard in CAD productivity. It's designed to realize your ideas with maximum speed, power, and efficiency. From the new dynamic blocks capability that allows you to quickly create, manipulate, and extract data from blocks, to heads-up design, which keeps your focus on your work rather than on the software, AutoCAD LT 2006 makes an impact on the way you work, every single day.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Works a little better with each release......, August 6, 2005

By 

Herman O. Morrow (Conroe, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: AutoCAD LT 2006 (CD-ROM)

I've been using AutoCAD off and on since it was a DOS program and it has continued to improve in ease of operation with each subsequent release that I've used from AutoCAD11 to the present. they haven't all been huge jumps in quality, but it has been at least a slight improvement with each one. I guess the only complaint I might have with this release is that the instruction manual might have gone into more depth; some one who is going to be using AutoCAD for the first time might still be lost with some of their explanations and examples, but then I suppose that's what all those aftermarket AutoCAD manuals are for.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Cautious With The Price, December 23, 2005

By 

Christopher Waggoner "Chris Waggoner" (New Albany, Indiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: AutoCAD LT 2006 (CD-ROM)

You can download this program for a free 30 day trial at the autodesk website. I have used Autocad off and on myself since 1985. I tried this version and I still prefer Autocad 14. It's really hard to beat it for 2D capabilities. For 800 bucks, I laugh at Autodesk for still trying to make this kind of money off license upgrades. It definately has bells and whistles, but in today's economy, it's lacking in competive price, in spite of the fact that Autodesk is sabotaging sales by releasing information on their own website that the LT versions in the near future will be released for free. If you only need 2D capable CAD Package, I would look toward other packages like Intelicad or Turbocad. Maybe even try to get an old copy of Autocad 14 which would have some 3D capability. If you are wanting an elite CAD package, you better go visit the Bentley website for Microstation. Microstations Raster capabilites totally blow away Autocad Products and imaging overlays are far superior to Autodesk.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars First LT Experience Better than Expected, February 24, 2006

By 

Matthew Orienter "M" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: AutoCAD LT 2006 (CD-ROM)

Prior to using LT 2006 I had a full version of 2005. Most of the things missing between LT and the full version aren't a big deal if you don't do rendering or write code, but some of the absences are noticeable on a day-to-day basis (most notably Express Tools and polygonal viewports).

2006 has some neat new features, like the "dyanmic command-line input" which puts the command line at the cursor and actually has a clickable version of each command's options. They've also cleaned up some of the enhancements to 2005. For example there's now an undo feature built into the copy command, so it actually makes sense to default to multi-copy mode.

In addition to that, I've noticed that finally with AutoCAD 2006 and Acrobat 7.0 making PDFs is much easier. Font embedding is simple enough (though disabled by default), but more importantly all vecotrs in AutoCAD are rendered as vectors in Acrobat. This yields much smaller file sizes while providing much more professional-looking PDFs.

Finally, I must say that 2006 is the least-buggy annual AutoCAD release I've experienced. There is a service pack available, and it fixes some issues. But even without the service pack, while I would crash pervious versions all the time I think I've killed this version two or three times.

There's still room for some improvement, particularly in the online features (including downloading patches) but overall this is a decent upgrade... if you can afford it.