Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 10:51:28 -0800 From: John Lynch To: pcmag@zd.com, gary@softsource.com Subject: LT vs. AutoCAD I read David Cohn's review on low-cost CAD ("A Whole New Side to CAD") in your December 2 issue with more than just a passing interest. I must comment on a couple of things. It seems that Mr. Cohn is comparing many of the low-cost CAD packages to full-blown AutoCAD (list price $3750), not AutoCAD LT. For example, in his review of VDraft, he comments that the package lacks "AutoCAD's robust 3D capabilities", but so does AutoCAD LT. He goes on to describe the lack of support for "AutoLISP, ADS or ASE" in the package, but AutoCAD LT lacks these capabilities as well. I also believe that LT provides only relative input via the digitizer, just like VDraft. I believe it would be more useful to your readers to compare these packages on a consistent basis with AutoCAD LT rather than AutoCAD since their prices are less than 15% those of full-blown AutoCAD. John Lynch (Author's note: my "more than just a passing interest" comes from my 11+ years at Autodesk where I most recently served as an executive and was responsible for the first version of AutoCAD LT, and many releases of AutoCAD. Although I left Autodesk in July, I am still intensely interested in this market, and just want your readers to make informed decisions based on objective reviews. Too many CAD reviews appear to be written by AutoCAD users and enthusiasts. C'mon David, you can do better than this!)