Features

The core capabilities of AutoCAD LT® 2D drafting and detailing software enable you to document, communicate, and optimise your 2D drawings.

Document

AutoCAD LT software delivers comprehensive 2D drafting and detailing tools for documenting ideas and designs. Create technical plans confidently with this comprehensive CAD drawing and drafting solution.

Create with Basic 2D Drafting Tools
Create simple or complex 2D drawings from standard shapes:

• Lines
• Polygons
• Arcs
• Circles
• Ellipses

Modify Your CAD Drawings Easily
Modify existing geometry with commands that:

• Stretch, fillet, or chamfer
• Move, copy, and rotate
• Scale, trim, and extend
• Offset, mirror, erase, or explode
• Align objects
• Add and edit properties—Easily display and change the current properties for any object in your CAD drawing
• Retrieve distance, radius, angle, area, and volume of an object or a sequence of points

Annotate Your CAD Drawings
AutoCAD LT provides robust annotation tools that enhance communication by adding:

• Text—Create and add text objects to your CAD drawing with familiar word processing tools such as indents and tabs, automatic bulleted or numbered lists, and in-place spell-checking.
• Dimensions—Add accurate dimensions to display distances, angles, and arc lengths with intelligent dimension objects. Independently control linetypes and arrow locations. Create jogged dimensions for dimensioning large radii or distances.
• Tables—Create tables that are easily resized and modified, and which can perform calculations using formulas similar to Microsoft® Excel software.
• Annotation scaling—Set the current scale of a viewport or model space view and apply that scale to each text, dimension, or hatch object. Its size, placement, and appearance will then automatically adjust based on the scale set for the viewport.
• Fields—Fields are special text objects that store the properties of objects or drawings. Use them to display properties, such as the length of a line, the area of a polyline, or the name of a layout. When a property changes, the fields will update.
• Calculate from Within AutoCAD LT—Use the QuickCalc calculator to perform calculations, convert units, and derive values from drawing entities.

Communicate
AutoCAD LT 2D CAD software gives you the tools for fast and secure collaboration with colleagues and clients in all phases of the design process. Review, edit, and share information easily and accurately with AutoCAD LT.

The Power of DWG
Save and share files with DWG™ technology from Autodesk. With billions of DWG files circulating throughout every design industry, it’s one of the most commonly used design data formats. With the AutoCAD LT native DWG file format, you can have complete confidence in the integrity and reliability of your data.

Seamless Data Sharing Across AutoCAD Products
Because AutoCAD LT 2D CAD software is built with the same technology as AutoCAD® software, sharing data between products is seamless. AutoCAD LT is interoperable with AutoCAD, Autodesk® Design Review, and DWG TrueView™ software. AutoCAD LT is also compatible with industry-specific AutoCAD-based products, including the AutoCAD® Architecture, AutoCAD® Map 3D, AutoCAD® Civil 3D®, AutoCAD® Electrical, and AutoCAD® Mechanical applications.

Reference Information in Other Files and File Formats
AutoCAD LT enables you to reference data in other files and a variety of formats into your CAD drawings, including:

• DWG
• Images 
• DWF™ files
• PDF
• Excel—Create AutoCAD LT tables directly from Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, and use Data Links to update information without retyping

Output Your CAD Drawings to Noneditable Formats

• Publish and plot—Save page setups to easily reuse settings from previous plots. Use the Publish command to quickly plot multiple drawings or layouts to a plotter or to a DWF file. With background plotting, you can continue working in the drawing editor while AutoCAD LT software plots behind the scenes.
• DWF—With DWF technology you can publish intelligent design data and save time by simplifying collaboration with your design team. With files as small as one-tenth the size of other file formats, DWF is a fast and easy way to communicate design information and provide secure and efficient sharing at every stage of the project lifecycle.
• Read and write to older versions of AutoCAD LT—Increase collaboration and the exchange of data with users of older versions of AutoCAD LT software.
• Design review—Easily coordinate projects during the design review stage by replacing the paper process with a digital one. Review and round-tripping functionality are free* with Autodesk Design Review software. Mark up drawings with comments, sketches, dimensions, text, and stamps before sending them. Workflows are streamlined, fidelity is increased, and jobs are finished faster.
• PDF output—Publish high-quality PDFs directly from AutoCAD LT drawings. Text in a drawing is exported as TrueType font, enabling you to highlight, search, and copy text in the PDF viewer. Select the appropriate font files to embed when you specify the PDF plotter properties. Once plotting is complete, the PDF automatically appears.

Share Drawing Files with Consultants and Clients
Protect the authenticity of your DWG files with digital signatures. Package all files related to a drawing into one zip file with eTransmit. Save drawings in earlier file formats to exchange data with users of older versions of AutoCAD LT software. Save DWG files in the DXF™ file format to exchange data with users of other design or CAD software.

Optimise

AutoCAD LT® 2D CAD software enables you to optimise your work environment. With a customisable user interface, you can set up a workspace that works for you. Organisation and navigation tools help you to build efficiency into your day-to-day workflow.

Organise content within your 2D CAD drawings and your library for control over screen and plotted outputs and easy access to standard tools and components.

Layers
The Layer Properties Manager makes creating and editing layer properties fast and easy. Changes made in the dialog are instantly reflected in the drawing.

• Group layers by shared properties for easy modification and save layer settings for reuse in other drawings.
• Set layer properties independently in each viewport to add emphasis to different aspects of your drawing.
• Use true colour to specify a colour by its hue, saturation, and luminescence (HSL) values, or by its red, green, and blue (RGB) components. You can also select colours from preloaded colour books, including several Pantone® and RAL libraries.

Blocks
Save time and standardise drawings by eliminating the need to redraw repetitive standard components.

• Add dynamic properties to blocks to accommodate multiple sizes or views in a single block, reducing the size of the block library in the process.
• Include attributes in block definitions, providing opportunities to display unique information about each block instance.
• Attributes can be single- or multiline, accommodating varying text lengths.
• Use a full range of Block Attribute commands to manage and edit information about defined blocks. Gain precise control over the order of attributes and easily add or remove attributes from block definitions.

Tool Palettes
Quickly access frequently used content, such as blocks, hatches, and commands.

• Save time and maintain standards, knowing that content is inserted on the proper layer with the correct scale, linetype, colour, and other properties.
• Easily organise your tool palettes into logical groups and quickly restore them at any time to increase productivity and save time.

Fade Display of Xrefs
Show externally referenced files as faded for on-screen display to visually differentiate objects in xrefs from objects in the current drawing.

Optimise Your User Interface
Quickly find your way around the screen with tools to locate commands, view all open drawings, and navigate between different areas in an open drawing. Optimise your work environment by customising the location and appearance of commands. Shortcuts include the following:

• Ribbon user interface
  The Ribbon interface presents commands in a concise visual format, allowing you to quickly select the commands you need. Customise the ribbon, so it's optimised for your needs and meets your company’s standards.
   
• Menu Browser
  The Menu Browser allows you to search for command names. Thumbnail images of recent and open files also appear, along with detailed information about when the file was last saved. Organise recently used files by name, date, or title.
   
• Quick View drawings/layouts
  The Quick View features use thumbnails in addition to file names, making opening the correct drawing file and layout faster and decreasing the time spent opening incorrect files.
   
• Viewports
  Show multiple views of your drawing on one layout with viewports. Viewports can be any size or shape required to show an area of interest. When a viewport is rotated, you can also rotate the view to maintain the view orientation relative to the viewport.
   
• Mouse wheel zoom/pan
  Use the wheel on your mouse to quickly zoom and pan to see different areas of your drawing.
   
• Dynamic Input
  Dynamic Input provides a command interface near the cursor to help keep your focus in the drafting area. When Dynamic Input is on, tooltips display information near the cursor that is dynamically updated as the cursor moves. When a command is active, the tooltips provide a place for user entry.

SteeringWheels
The Autodesk® SteeringWheels® navigation tool provides quick access to the Zoom and Pan commands. It also has a rewind function that enables you to step back through previous views of your drawing.

*Free products are subject to the terms and conditions of the end-user license agreement that accompanies download of the software.