From the course: AutoCAD for Mac 2019 Essential Training

AutoCAD versions - AutoCAD for Mac Tutorial

From the course: AutoCAD for Mac 2019 Essential Training

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AutoCAD versions

- [Instructor] Let's talk for a moment about AutoCAD as a software product in general. The first release of AutoCAD occurred in December of 1982, and it has continued to this day to be the most ubiquitous computer-aided drafting and design application available. About 10 years later, AutoCAD release 12 was the last version to natively support the Mac operating system. The following year, AutoCAD LT was introduced as a lower-cost version of AutoCAD with some reduced capabilities. In 2010, AutoCAD for Mac 2011 was released, this was the first version to support Mac OS X in the last 17 years. The following year, AutoCAD for Mac LT 2012 was introduced. For reference, AutoCAD LT and AutoCAD for Mac LT have the same features and capabilities as the full versions, except for two key differences. LT products do not support creating or viewing 3D models, nor do they support extensibility. Extensibility simply means you cannot use programming languages like Lisp or apps downloaded through the Autodesk app store to add features and tools to AutoCAD LT. Another difference used to be an upgrade path, but with newer pricing models, this is no longer really a factor. I want to mention all of this because, whether using AutoCAD for Windows or AutoCAD for Mac, LT or full, AutoCAD files can be saved and exchanged with either platform, and on almost any release, enabling you to share your files with colleagues, no matter which operating system they are using. In a later video, we'll go into the differences and file types, and saving a file backwards for compatibility with early releases. But I wanted to point out that, no matter the version, saving files between the full version and LT versions, or between Mac and PC, should cause no issues or compatibility errors.

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