I am a self-employed architectural technologist and planner working in architecture and planning. 40% of my work is drawing on CAD, which I transferred to, from pen and ink, in 1997. I purchased AutoCAD LT Release 2 [1995 version] and later upgraded to AutoCAD LT2000. I’m in my fifties and do not consider myself a computer whiz – coming to them quite late in the mid 90’s. Sometimes I’ve struggled. I have to say, however, that I don’t know what I would have done without AutoCAD – it’s a wonderful tool. I didn’t upgrade after LT2000 because I wasn’t convinced that the upgrades represented good value for money. Later, Autodesk told me that I’d left it too late as the older versions become ‘retired’. This decision would come back to haunt me as, in recent years, I’ve received drawings from others, over email etc., which I can’t open. I have to then ask them to re-send it in my old stone age version. Embarrassing. Lesson – try to keep up with the upgrades if you can afford it. It’s from this background that I write this review of AutoCAD 2008 full version. I opened the box feeling that I was about to leap into a sports car after driving my old Volvo for 20 years, but was reassured by reading the ‘Send Help’ leaflet, which offered a free copy [‘free’ – having just spent £1000’s] of a printed manual. I wanted one of these as even now I still sometimes use my old LT95 manual rather than the on-screen stuff. Went round the houses a bit and I finished up in the Americas, but I got there in the end by reading the leaflet properly and, sure enough, 13 days later I received a two volume manual just like my old one. Great content, though for some reason they’ve gone for the Beatles White Album cover look. I could have done with the manual from day one. There’s nothing quite like having a book on your desk that you can refer to while keeping your drawing on screen. Sometimes, with the on screen help, I would read it, minimise it, brink it back, minimise it again, forget what it had said, then bring it back again and finally write it down! The manual is great.
Installation was okay. I did a back up of all my LT drawings just in case I altered them in AutoCAD 2008 and then couldn’t plot. I wanted to be able to revert to LT as a standby but there was no need. I was soon up and running and plotting from the 2008 version. When I installed [using Windows 2000 – bronze age] I received a warning – ‘Error 1904 Module C/System32/Macromed/Flash 9.ocx failed to register. Contact your support personnel’. So I spoke to my 14-year-old daughter but she couldn’t help. I thought I also did a ‘migration’ thing wrong – I think I migrated from the wrong version. So I uninstalled and started again. This time was successful and I didn’t receive the error warning. Activation was a hassle and a bit Fort Knox-ish. I had the serial number but Autodesk asked for a user ID password, which I subsequently managed to create via a site somewhere. Finally I received the activation code. Then came the next warning – not enough video memory available for some features. Still haven’t sorted this – apparently I need a new graphics card and my IT man says I will need a new cooling fan to support the card. I started through the tutorial and noticed the offer of drawing with ‘wiggle lines’ on the attached programme Autodesk impression. I’d seen these on colleagues’ drawings and didn’t realise it came with AutoCAD 2008. So I downloaded, in eager anticipation, the additional 282mb programme but it wouldn’t work because of the graphics card problem. Must get it sorted. Hurried through the ‘new features’ tutorial but by then I just wanted to start drawing. As soon as I did, I noticed many improvements and changes over my old LT2000. Here are a few:

Dynamic Input:
At the cursor / crosshair point there is a small command line containing information and prompts. Saves having to re-focus on the main command line. Seconds count. As the cursor moves over the objects, blocks and lines they are highlighted. I found that I didn’t have to zoom in in order to pick accurately on a line or object. Saves zooming time.
Copying:
Is automatically multiple by default. Saves having to input ‘m’ at the command line. Window and crossing selections are clearer as the enclosure changes colour. A small point that adds to ease of drawing. Similarly when you are in a different UCS, such as an UCS object, the crosshairs change colour – a good on-screen reminder that one is not in ‘world’ UCS, especially if the UCS icon is switched off.
Zooming:
Is much improved over LT2000. I frequently use the wheel for zooming in and out. In the old version ‘zoom previous’ would annoyingly jump back in small increments only. Zooming now seems to work like a large camera zoom lens. For example, if one double-clicks the wheel for ‘zoom extents’ the view zooms back like a film so you can see the point you zoomed from. When working on large drawings, in LT2000 I would go ‘zoom extents’ and then ask ‘where was I?’ No longer a problem.
Workspace:
Maybe I was missing something or it’s that I don’t use 3D but I couldn’t see the point of the Dashboard way of working. I was much happier with the AutoCAD Classic Workspace, which was similar to my old LT. As it opened by default in the dashboard type workspace, I was lost for a while. When I found the ‘classic’ workspace, I spent time setting up the toolbars exactly as I wanted them and then immediately lost them again when I took another look at the ‘2D Workspace’. There was no prompt to warn me. Frustrating. I then found the ‘workspace settings’ and saved my own workspace. I found
the CU1 command confusing – perhaps it will be easier now that I have the printed manual.
Open ‘Select File’: The dialog box is improved over LT2000 as it now shows the file size. Good for drawing management – saves having to right click on properties. One can quickly see how much space has been saved following a ‘purge’.
Attributes:
I’m not a great user of blocks with attributes but the ‘Enhanced Attribute Editor’ is a great
improvement over LT2000. Maybe I’ll now use attributes more often.
Plotting:
Is similar but conveniently all on one dialog box, once you’ve spotted the arrow on the bottom right to expand the box. In LT2000 one had to bounce between two boxes to input and read all the information. I was relived when it inherited all the page setup settings from previous drawings created in LT2000. From ‘plot model’ I was unable to delete a saved plot but I then discovered the new ‘Page Setup Manager’ under ‘file’. This is a much more comprehensive command that LT2000’s page setup. It gives, for example, the opportunity to modify the plotting options of a saved plot. However, it’s a pity that one can’t access this command directly from the plot dialog box. Following a plot the ‘plot /
publish’ box appears, which was reassuring. Will probably be more useful if a plot fails for some reason.
Multiple Text & Edit Text:
Of all the improvements this was the big one. One edits text and types in a see-through box that appears as if you are writing directly in model space. You can see exactly how the text will appear on the drawing without having first to exit the command. The zoom wheel can be used during the command. The box can be dragged to a larger size [width] if one doesn’t want the text to jump to a second line, which couldn’t be done in LT2000. The whole command seems to work like a mini word processor with all the features such as justification. When the command is finished, there is an ‘ok’ button but it is quicker just to click outside the box. The ‘Autostack Properties’ warning box is as annoying as it ever was. Why doesn’t it have a ‘no’ answer box to the posed question?
Edit Hatch:
I discovered this one by mistake. I needed to edit / trim a hatch. In LT2000 one had to explode a hatch before it could be trimmed. Therefore at times it was better to re-draw the hatch rather then leave an exploded hatch. In AutoCAD 2008 you can trim the hatch. Brilliant.
Multileader:
This toolbar is ok but I don’t like a horizontal landing to my leaders. I could achieve this only by drawing the leader and subsequently altering it in the properties box. I could not alter it in the ‘Multileader Style Manager’. Maybe it’s me.
Named Views / View Manager:
Some good improvements here. In the ‘save new view’ command there is an option to ‘save layer snapshot with view’. This is very useful but unfortunately I couldn’t make it save a layer snapshot to plot – i.e. if the layers are switched back on, they will be plotted. In this command the ‘define window’ is a welcome addition over LT2000 – I can snap a specific point to save the view. In ‘View Manager’ you can also edit the boundaries and update the layers of a saved view – more good tools.
Insert:
I never made much use of this in LT2000 but I certainly will in AutoCAD 2008. If you want photographs in the drawing, the insert ‘Raster Image Reference …’ is fantastic. It will transform some of my drawings.
Conclusion
Full AutoCAD 2008 is a vast improvement over my old LT2000 version. Whether it is worth all the additional money I cannot say. As I don’t use 3D possibly LT2008 would have been the one to have gone for – as long as it has all the commands I have detailed above. I thought that I had dropped out of all upgrades as I had left it too late but co-incidentally Autodesk telephoned me the other day as they noticed I was a registered user of LT2000 and would I like to upgrade? I said “Too late – I’ve just installed AutoCAD 2008”. Lesson here – if you are using a really old version of AutoCAD and think you have left it too late, phone Autodesk and ask what they have to offer.
As for me, now that I have full AutoCAD 2008 and the printed manual, it’s about time I tried to learn 3D.

Buy AutoCAD 2010 – 339$